TORIE  S 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


iler; 

.ioners 

Shth  Ai 


THE  JUNO  STORIES, 

of  the  Volumes, 


1st.  JUNO  AND  GEORGIE. 
zd.    MARY  OSBORNE. 
3d.   JUNO  ON  A  JOURNEY. 
4th.  HUBERT. 


COMING  TO  THEIR  SENSES. 


T  H  K 


UNO  1^1  TORIES 


JACOB     ABBOTT. 
f 


u  b  t  r  t. 


NEW  YORK: 

DODD  &  MEAD,  762  BROADWAY. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1870,  hy 

JACOB    ABBOTT, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


EDWARD  O.  JENKINS, 

PRINTER  AND   STEREOTYPER, 

SO  North  William  Street,  N.  Y. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
I. 

GETTING  SETTLED 11 

H. 
HOME  MANUFACTURE 25 

III. 
TAKING  A  SET 36 

IV. 
A  QUARREL 45 

V. 
PEACE 55 

VI. 
A  LAND  GRANT 68 

VII. 
HINDERING  INSTEAD  OF  HELPING 80 

VIII. 
THE  Two  LOCOMOTIVES 97 

IX. 
THE  LOFT 106 

X. 
GOING  UP  A  MOUNTAIN 118 

XI. 
LEARNING  LONG  DIVISION 125 

xn. 

JUNO'S  SCHOOL..  .  135 


(7) 

622659 


8  CONTENTS. 

xin. 

ABOUT  TOOLS 147 

xrv. 

JUNO  LEARNING  SOMETHING 157 

XV. 
LONG  DIVISION  DIVIDED 170 

XVI. 
DIFFICULTIES 187 

XVII. 
MBS.  WOOD  SURPRISED 198 

XVIII. 
JUNO'S  IDEAS 211 

XIX. 
THE  NEW  WHEEL 224 

XX. 

WILLIAM  DABRICUTT 243 

XXI. 
STRONG  GOVERNMENT 256 

XXII. 
ARRANGEMENTS 265 

xxin. 

AN  ALARM  OF  FIRE 275 

XXIV. 
A  CHEMISTRY  LESSON 285 

XXV. 

A  SUCCESSFUL  EXPEDITION 295 

XXVI. 
CONCLUSION 304 


HUBERT 


CHAPTER    I. 
Getting    Settled. 

"1  TUBERT  was  an  orphan.  At  the  time 
when  this  story  begins  he  was  about 
ten  years  old.  He  was  Georgie's  cousin. 
He  came  about  this  time  to  live  with  his 
Aunt  Cornelia. 

His  Aunt  Cornelia  was  very  kind  to  him, 
in  her  way,  though  I  do  not  think  her  way 
was  in  all  respects  the  best  way.  How  this 
was,  however,  will  appear  more  fully  by  and 
by.  She  meant  at  any  rate  to  be  kind  to 


12  HUBERT. 

him,  as  the  orphan  son  of  her  sister,  in  the 
most  faithful  manner. 

Hubert's  aunt,  Cornelia,  lived  in  a  large 
and  handsome  house.  Hubert  had  a  very 
pleasant  room  in  this  house,  all  to  himself. 
It  was  in  the  second  story  of  a  kind  of  wing, 
and  the  windows  opened  out  over  the  roof 
of  a  piazza  which  was  about  two  or  three 
feet  down  from  the  sills  of  the  windows,  so 
that  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  get  down 
to  it,  from  Hubert'*  room,  when  a  window 
was  open. 

On  the  day  when  Hubert  first  came 
to  live  with  his  aunt,  Robert,  a  colored 
man  who  was  in  her  service,  took  his 
trunk  up  to  his  room,  while  he  and  his 
aunt  followed,  his  aunt  leading  him  by  the 
hand. 

"  Put  the  trunk*  down  here  by  the  win- 
dow," said  his  aunt,  "  and  I  will  send  Maria 


THE   CHAMBERMAID.  13 

presently  to  put  the  things  away  in  the  bu- 
reau drawers." 

"  I  can  put  them  away  in  the  drawers 
myself,"  said  Hubert. 

"  Oh,  no,  my  dear,"  replied  his  aunt ;  "  you 
could  not  put  them  away  properly.  Maria 
will  put  them  away  for  you,  and  arrange 
them  all  nicely.  She  will  take  all  the  care 
of  your  things  for  you." 

Maria  was  Robert's  sister,  and  was  the 
chambermaid. 

"  Maria  is  coming  up  in  a  few  minutes," 
continued  his  aunt,  "  and  she  will  put  your 
things  away  and  arrange  them  all  properly, 
in  your  drawers." 

Hubert's  aunt  was  very  particular  to  have 
everything  in  her  house  done  properly ;  as, 
in  fact,  every  good  house-keeper  ought  to  be. 

"  Ah  !  here  comes  Maria  now,"  she  con- 
tinued. 

2 


14  HUBERT. 

Maria  was  a  nice-looking  colored  girl, 
very  neatly  dressed,  and  with  a  pleasing 
countenance.  She  took  no  notice  of  Hu- 
bert as  she  came  in,  but  stood  awaiting  the 
orders  from  Mrs.  Wood,  for  that  was  the 
name  of  Hubert's  aunt. 

Mrs.  Wood  desired  Maria  to  unpack  the 
trunk  and  put  the  things  in  the  drawers  of 
the  bureau.  There  were  two  large  draw- 
ers below  and  two  small  ones  under  the 
glass  above.  Mrs.  Wood  gave  particular 
directions  where  everything  was  to  be  put 
— the  shirts  in  this  drawer,  the  stockings  in 
that  one,  and  at  that  end  of  it — the  pocket 
handkerchiefs  here,  the  jackets  and  trow- 
sers  there,  and  so  with  everything  else. 

"And  when  you  have  done  everything," 
added  Mrs.  Wood,  "  let  Robert  know,  and 
he  will  come  and  take  the  trunk  up  into  the 
lumber-room." 


HUBERT'S  PLAYTHINGS.  15 

"And  where  shall  I  put  my  playthings?" 
asked  Hubert. 

"  The  playthings  !"  repeated  Mrs.  Wood. 
"  I  hope  you  have  not  brought  a  great  many 
playthings.  You  know,  my  dear,  that  you 
will  wish  to  keep  your  room  in  very  nice 
order,  and  not  have  it  all  littered  up  with 
playthings.  But  perhaps  Robert  can  find 
some  place  for  them,"  she  added,  "  in  the 
coach-house ;  could  not  you,  Robert  ?  in 
one  of  the  closets  there,  perhaps." 

Robert  said  that  he  could.  There  was  a 
whole  shelf  there  that  he  could  set  apart 
for  them. 

"  That  will  be  just  the  thing,"  said  Mrs. 
Wood.  "  So  it  is  all  arranged." 

Mrs.  Wood  then  went  to  one  of  the  win- 
dows and  looked  out. 

"  Ah  !"  said  she,  "  I  forgot  about  these 
windows.  They  lead  out  upon  the  roof  of 


1 6  HUBERT. 

this  piazza.,  which  is  very  dangerous.  These 
windows  must  be  fastened  down." 

"  What,  so  that  I  can't  open  them  at  all  ?" 
asked  Hubert,  with  a  look  of  great  concern. 

"  Why,  my  dear,"  said  his  aunt,  "  you  will 
have  air  enough  through  the  door,  or  at 
least — well,  I  know  it  would  be  a  conve- 
nience to  have  a  window  open  sometimes, 
but  it  is  much  better  to  forego  that  advan- 
tage than  to  run  the  risk  of  breaking  your 
neck.  If  you  were  to  be  tempted  to  climb 
out  upon  that  roof  you  might  fall  and  kill 
yourself;  or  at  least,  break  your  arm  or  your 
leg." 

"  But,  aunt,"  said  Hubert,  "  I  promise  you 
I  never  will  get  out." 

"Ah!  my  dear  boy,"  said  Mrs.  Wood, 
patting  him  on  the  head  at  the  same  time, 
and  with  a  pleasant  smile  upon  her  face,  "  it 
does  not  do  to  trust  to  boys'  promises  too 


BARRING  THE   WINDOWS.  I/ 

much,  you  know.  You  are  a  very  good 
boy,  I  dare  say,  and  as  worthy  to  be  trusted 
as  most  boys  ;  but  boys  are  boys,  you  know, 
and  you  might  be  tempted.  If  you  were  to 
fall  off  the  roof  and  get  killed  or  crippled 
for  life,  I  never  should  forgive  myself." 

So  saying,  Mrs.  Wood  looked  out  upon 
the  roof  and  shuddered. 

"  I  don't  see  any  other  way  of  making  it 
safe,"  she  said,  turning  to  Robert,  "  but  to 
fasten  down  the  windows." 

"  You  might  have  bars  put  up,  perhaps," 
suggested  Robert. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mrs.  Wood.  "  Yes,  that's 
just  the  thing.  That  removes  all  the  diffi- 
culties. I  wonder  I  did  not  think  of  that 
myself.  Then  Hubert  and  Maria  can  open 
the  windows  whenever  they  like.  We  will 
decide  upon  that  plan.  Get  the  carpenter 
to  come  this  very  da . ,  and  put  up  strong 
2* 


18  HUBERT. 

bars,  near  enough  together,  so  that  a  boy 
cannot  get  through  between  them,  and  com- 
ing up  as  high  as  the  windows  will  open. 

"  That  will  suit  you  exactly,  Hubert  dear," 
she  said,  taking  hold  of  his  hand.  "  You 
can  open  the  windows  whenever  you  please, 
and  the  bars  won't  prevent  your  looking  out 
when  the  window  is  shut.  You  will  like 
that  plan  very  much,  won't  you  ?" 

Hubert  did  not  seem  much  inclined  to 
answer.  Some  how  or  other  he  did  not  like 
the  plan,  though  he  could  hardly  tell  what 
the  reason  was. 

The  bars  only  prevented  him  from  getting 
out  upon  the  roof,  and  he  thought  he  did 
not  wish  to  get  out.  So  there  seemed  to  be 
no  special  reason  why  he  should  have  any 
objection  to  the  plan.  And  yet  he  felt  un- 
comfortable and  dissatisfied  ;  though  if  he 
had  been  asked  he  could  not  have  told  why. 


THE   BIBLE   SHELF.  19 

There  was  a  table  near  one  of  the  win- 
dows with  a  drawer  in  it.  Mrs.  Wood 
opened  the  drawer  and  showed  Hubert 
what  was  in  it. 

"  See  !"  said  she.  "  I  have  put  in  every- 
thing you  will  want.  There  is  a  slate  and 
a  book  of  arithmetic,  and  some  paper  and 
a  lead  pencil." 

"And  an  inkstand  and  a  pen?"  asked  Hu- 
bert. 

"  No,"  replied  his  aunt,  speaking  in  a  hesi- 
tating tone.  "  No,  I  did  not  put  any  ink 
here,  for  fear  you  might  spill  it.  But  you 
can  write  with  a  pencil  just  as  well,  you 
know,  when  you  want  to  write.  And  here's 
a  little  shelf  where  you  can  put  your  Bible. 
You  have  got  yoor  Bible,  I  suppose,  in  your 
trunk." 

"  Yes,  aunt,"  said  Hubert. 

"  You  must   read  a  chapter  in  it  every 


2O  HUBERT. 

night  before  going  to  bed.  Be  sure  and  not 
forget  it.  I  hope  you  will  be  a  good  boy 
and  give  your  heart  to  God,  so  that  your 
soul  may  be  saved.  That  is  more  import- 
ant than  everything  else  in  the  world.  And 
now  I'll  leave  you  until  you  get  your  things 
arranged.  You  can  stay  and  help  Maria 
about  the  unpacking.  You  must  let  Maria 
arrange  things  just  as  she  thinks  best.  She 
knows  just  how  I  wish  the  business  to  be 
done.  I  hope  you  will  be  a  good  boy  here, 
and  if  you  are  I  am  sure  you  will  be  happy. 
I  am  very  indulgent  to  good  little  boys,  and 
I  shall  do  all  I  can  to  make  you  happy  here 
in  my  house.  You  must  remember  that  it 
will  be  a  good  deal  of  care  for  me,  and  make 
me  a  good  deal  of  extra  trouble  to  have  you 
in  my  family  ;  but  you  must  try  to  be  a  good 
boy,  and  make  the  care  and  trouble  as  little 
as  possible." 


"GOOD   LITTLE   BOY  !"  21 

So  saying,  his  aunt  kissed  him  affection- 
ately on  his  forehead,  and  went  away. 

There  were  several  things  in  his  aunt's 
reception  of  Hubert,  and  in  her  manage- 
ment in  respect  to  the  room,  which  troubled 
him  a  good  deal ;  but  perhaps  the  thing 
which  vexed  him  most  was  her  classing  him 
among  little  boys. 

"  Good  little  boy  !"  he  said,  repeating  his 
his  aunt's  words  in  a  tone  of  contempt. 
"  I'm  no  more  a  good  little  than  she  is  her- 
self. I'm  ten  years  old  last  July,  and  going 
on  eleven  !" 

Mrs.  Wood  did  not  mean  to  be  impolite 
to  Hubert  in  speaking  of  him  as  a  little  boy, 
but  it  is  nearly  as  impolite  to  apply  the  term 
little  to  a  boy  over  eight  years  of  age,  as  it 
is  to  give  the  epithet  old  to  a  lady  over 
thirty-five.  Mrs.  Wood  was  herself  about 
thirty-eight,  and  what  would  she  have 


22  HUBERT. 

thought  if  a  young  gentleman  had  come 
and  taken  his  seat  by  her  side,  at  an  even- 
ing party,  and  had  said  I  am  coming  to  sit 
here,  for  I  like  to  talk  with  nice  old  ladies 
like  you  ;  or  if  he  had  even  said  elderly  ladies  ? 
That  afternoon  the  carpenter  came,  with 
six  stout  bars  of  hard  wood  under  one  arm, 
and  the  box  containing  the  necessary  tools 
for  putting  them  up,  under  the  other.  He 
placed  the  bars,  three  at  each  window,  leav- 
ing spaces  about  eight  inches  wide  between 
them,  and  between  the  uppermost  and  the 
sash  above,  and  between  the  lowermost  and 
the  window-sill.  Before  he  marked  off  the 
distances  he  took  a  look  at  Hubert,  to  see 
how  near  they  must  be  together  to  prevent 
the  possibility  of  his  squeezing  through, 
thus  specially  reminding  Hubert  that  the 
bars  were  put  there  with  particular  refer- 
ence to  him. 


THE   BARS   SCREWED   ON.  23 

The  carpenter  got  out  at  one  of  the  win-1 
dows,  and  stood  upon  the  roof  the  piazza 
while   he  was   screwing  the  bars  on.     He 
screwed  them  to  the  window-frames  on  the 
outside.     Hubert  watched  the  proceeding. 

"  You  had  better  not  put  in  too  big 
screws,"  said  Hubert,  "  for  that  will  make 
the  holes  too  large  in  the  window  when  you 
come  to  take  the  bars  down  again." 

"  That's  true,"  said  the  carpenter.  "  Slen- 
der screws  will  do  very  well.  There'll  be 
no  great  strain  come  upon  the  bars,  and  I 
don't  suppose  Mrs.  Wood  will  keep  them 
up  very  long." 

The  bars,  when  they  were  screwed  on, 
had  the  effect,  of  course,  of  barring  the  car- 
penter out,  as  well  as  barring  Hubert  in. 
This,  however,  made  no  difficulty,  for  the 
carpenter,  as  soon  as  the  work  was  done, 
walked  along  the  roof  of  the  piazza  to  an- 


24  HUBERT. 

other  window  which  opened  from  an  entry, 
and  climbed  in  there ;  thus  showing  Hubert 
how  he  could  get  out  upon  the  piazza  if  he 
chose,  notwithstanding  the  closing  up  of  his 

4 

windows.  Mrs.  Wood  did  not  consider  it 
necessary  to  bar  up  that  window,  too,  for 
she  did  not  suppose  that  Hubert  would 
think  of  getting  out  that  way. 


CHAPTER    II. 
Ho  m  e    Ma  n  ufa  cture. 

A     FEW  days  after  Hubert  came  to  live 
with  his  Aunt  Cornelia,  he  went  to 
make  a  visit  to  his  Cousin  Georgie.     Geor- 
gie  was  at  that  time  of  just  about  his  age. 

After  spending  half  an  hour  in  rambling 
about  the  grounds  and  buildings  where 
Georgie  lived,  Hubert  asked  Georgie  if 
there  was  any  place  near  there  where  they 
could  go  a  fishing.  Georgie  said  that  there 
was  a  very  good  place,  but  that  he  had  no 
fishing-lines. 

"  Have  you  got  any  fish-hooks  ?"  asked 
Hubert. 

3  <25> 


26  HUBERT. 

"  Yes,"  said  Georgie,  "  I  have  got  some 
fish-hooks  in  a  box  in  my  drawer ;  but  my 
line  is  all  worn  out,  and  I  had  to  throw  it 
away.  But  we  can  go  and  buy  some  lines." 

"  No,"  said  Hubert ;  "  we  must  make 
them." 

"  I  have  got  plenty  of  money  to  buy  some," 
said  Georgie. 

"  That's  nothing,"  replied  Hubert.  "  Nev- 
er buy  anything  that  you  can  make.  That 
is  my  rule." 

"  That  is  not  my  rule,"  said  Georgie. 

"  What  is  your  rule?"  asked  Hubert. 

"  It  is  just  the  contrary,"  said  Geor- 
gie. "  Never  make  anything  that  you  can 
buy." 

"  My  rule  is  the  best,"  said  Hubert.  "  Be- 
cause, you  see,  in  that  way  you  save  your 
money  for  something  that  you  can't  make, 
and  so  have  more  things." 


HUBERT'S  MEASURING  RULE.         27 

"  But  what  we  make  is  not  so  good,"  said 
Georgie. 

"  Perhaps  it  is  not  quite  so  nice  and  styl- 
ish," said  Hubert,  "  but  the  pleasure  of 
thinking  that  you  made  it  more  than  makes 
up  for  the  difference." 

"  Where  did  you  get  your  rule  ?"  asked 
Georgie. 

"  Isaiah  gave  it  to  me,"  said  Hubert. 
"  Isaiah  was  a  man  who  used  to  live  with 
my  mother  while  she  was  alive,  and  he  gave 
me  that  rule.  He  helped  me  make  a  good 
many  things,  and  showed  me  how  to  make 
a  good  many  myself.  I  can  make  a  very 
good  fishing-line,  if  I  can  only  get  some  car- 
pet thread." 

"  I  can  get  plenty  of  thread,"  said  Geor-r 
gie.  "  Juno  will  give  me  as  much  as  I  want." 

'*  Who  is  Juno  ?"  asked  Hubert. 

"  She  is  the  girl  who  used  to  take  care  of 


28  HUBERT. 

me  when  I  was  a  little  boy,"  said  Georgie, 
"  and  she  helps  me  now  whenever  I  want 
anything." 

So  saying,  Georgie  ran  into  the  house,  and 
presently  returned  with  a  skein  of  carpet 
thread  in  one  hand  and  a  piece  of  beeswax 
in  the  other. 

"  Ah !"  said  Hubert,  "  that's  just  the  thing. 
But  what  made  you  think  of  the  beeswax  ?" 

"  Juno  thought  of  it,"  said  Georgie.  "  She 
said  if  we  waxed  the  thread  well  before  we 
doubled  and  twisted  it,  and  then  waxed  the 
line  when  it  was  finished,  it  would  be  strong- 
er, last  longer,  and  would  look  smoother 
and  handsomer." 

"How  came  she  to  know  that?"  asked 
Hubert. 

"  Oh,  she  knows  about  all  such  things," 
said  Georgie. 

So  the  boys  at  once  went  to  work  to  make 


THE   FISHING-LINES.  29 

two  fishing-lines.  They  first  wound  the  skein 
into  a  ball.  Then  Hubert  made  a  loop  in 
one  end  of  it,  and  passed  this  loop  over  the 
catch  that  belonged  to  the  latch  at  the  door 
of  the  shed.  He  first,  however,  doubled  a 
short  length  of  the  thread  twice,  so  as  to 
make  four  strands,  and  twisted  them  togeth- 
er between  his  thumb  and  finger  in  order 
to  see  whether  four  thicknesses  would  make 
the  fishing-line  of  the  right  size  ;  and  being 
satisfied  that  it  would,  he  then  proceeded  to 
unwind  a  portion  of  the  thread,  walking 
backward  as  he  did  so,  from  the  place  where 
the  end  was  fastened,  till  he  had  reached  a 
length  about  four  times  that  necessary  for 
the  fishing-line.  Georgie  walked  close  after 
him  with  the  beeswax,  which  he  pressed 
along  the  thread  as  Hubert  unwound  it, 
rubbing  it  to  and  fro,  so  as  to  wax  it  com- 
pletely. 


30  HUBERT. 

Hubert  next  twisted  this  length,  and  then 
doubled  it,  Georgie  taking  hold  of  the  mid- 
dle and  pulling  it  to  one  side  while  he  ad- 
vanced, until  he  could  bring  the  two  ends 
together.  The  double  strand  which  was 
thus  formed  he  doubled  and  twisted  again, 
and  thus  obtained  a  nice,  smooth  and  fine 
line,  which  Georgie  was  satisfied,  on  exam- 
ing  it,  would  make  a  very  good  fishing-line 
indeed. 

"  It  is  not  quite  so  handsome  as  one  you 
might  buy,"  said  Hubert,  "  but  it  will  catch 
the  fishes  just  as  well." 

"  It  is  handsome  enough"  said  Georgie. 

As  soon  as  one  line  was  made  the  boys 
began  upon  another,  so  as  to  have  one  for 
each  of  them. 

After  this  Georgie  went  into  the  house 
and  procured  a  cork,  from  which  Hubert 
cut  off  two  pieces,  and  strung  them  upon 


THE   FISHING-LINES.  31 

the  two  lines,  one  on  each,  for  floats.  In 
doing  this  he  used  a  big  darning-needle, 
which  Georgie  also  brought  out  for  the  pur- 
pose. The  boys  found  in  a  box  of  old  iron, 
in  a  place  which  served  as  a  kind  of  store- 
room in  the  shed,  some  sheet-lead,  out  of 
which  Hubert  fashioned  sinkers,  by  cutting 
out  strips  and  wrapping  them  round  the 
lines  at  the  proper  distance  from  the  end. 

"  Now,"  said  Hubert,  "  go  and  get  your 
fish-hooks." 

"  Yes,"  said  Georgie  ;  "  and  I  must  carry 
in  all  these  things  that  we  have  done  with." 

So  he  gathered  together  the  various  ob- 
jects which  they  had  been  using — the  re- 
mainder of  the  thread,  the  wax,  and  the 
darning-needle,  and  took  them  into  the 
house  to  give  them  back  to  Juno.  On  his 
return  he  brought  with  him  his  fish-hooks 
in  the  little  box  in  which  he  kept  them,  and 


32  HUBERT. 

Hubert,  after  selecting  two  of  the  proper 
size,  attached  one  on  the  end  of  each  line, 
fastening  them  in  a  very  neat  and  scientific 
manner. 

"  That's  complete  !"  said  Georgie,  survey- 
ing the  work  after  it  was  done.  "  Now  all 
we  want  is  poles.  What  are  we  to  do  for 
poles  ?" 

"  And  bait,"  said  Hubert.  "  We  must  get 
our  bait  before  we  go,  but  we  can  cut  our 
poles  out  of  the  bushes." 

The  boys  dug  worms  for  bait,  and  put 
them  into  a  tin  box  which  Georgie  kept  for 
that  purpose,  and  then  Georgie  went  into 
the  house  to  get  permission  to  go  a  fishing. 
He  first  went  to  Juno.  His  custom  was  in 
all  such  cases  to  go  in  the  first  instance  to 
Juno.  If  Juno  thought  it  so  clear  that  there 
was  no  objection  to  granting  his  request, 
that  she  was  willing  to  take  the  responsi- 


THE   LINES   FINISHED.  33 

bility,  she  gave  him  the  permission  at  once. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  she  thought  there  was 
any  serious  objection,  she  refused  at  once, 
so  that  Georgie's  mother  should  not  have 
the  trouble  of  considering  the  question.  If, 
however,  she  thought  well,  on  the  whole, 
of  Georgie's  plan,  but  did  not  feel  quite 
willing  to  take  the  full  responsibility  of  ac- 
ceding to  it,  she  would  send  him  to  his 
mother  for  a  final  decision.  Now,  as  Geor- 
gie's mother  almost  always  concurred  in 
Juno's  opinion,  Georgie  generally  consid- 
ered the  question  as  virtually  settled,  when 
he  had  obtained  Juno's  consent  to  refer  it 
to  his  mother. 

So  Georgie  went  in  when  the  fishing-lines 
were  finished,  showed  them  to  Juno,  and 
asked  if  he  could  go  a  fishing  to  try  them. 

"  Where  do  you  wish  to  go  ?"  asked  Juno. 

"  To  the  four-mile  brook,"  said  Georgie. 


34  '         HUBERT. 

"Anybody  to  go  with  you  ?"  asked  Juno. 

"  Yes,  Hubert,"  said  Georgie. 

"  Is  he  a  good  large  boy,"  asked  Juno ; 
"  big  enough  to  pull  you  out  if  you 
fall  in?" 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Georgie,  "  he  is  as  old  as 
I  am." 

"  Then  he'll  do  very  well,  I  should  think," 
said  Juno.  "  And  how  long  do  you  wish  to 
be  gone  ?" 

"  Oh — about  two  hours,"  said  Georgie. 

"  Well,"  said  Juno.  "  It  is  now  two.  I 
will  allow  you  two  hours  and  a  half.  That 
will  make  it  half-past  four.  I  don't  see  any 
objection  to  your  going.  But  go  and  ask 
your  mother." 

So  Georgie  went  in  and  stated  the  case 
to  his  mother. 

"  Have  you  asked  Juno  about  it?"  asked 
his  mother. 


"THEN   YOU    MAY   GO."  35 

"  Yes,  mother,"  said  Georgie,  "  and  she 
says  she  thinks  there  is  no  objection." 

"  Then  you  may  go,"  said  his  mother. 

Georgie  then  ran  off  to  tind  Hubert,  and 
they  together  started  immediately  on  their 
excursion. 


CHAPTER   III. 

Taking  a  Set. 

~T~T  would  be  very  surprising  to  see  how 
easily  and  on  what  trifling  occasions 
children  get  into  quarrels,  and  that  too 
about  things  which  in  their  reasonable  mo- 
ments they  care  very  little  about,  were  it 
not  that  so  many  grown  people  so  often  act 
in  the  same  senseless  manner. 

One  would  not  suppose  from  the  very 
good-natured  and  friendly  manner  in  which 
the  boys  worked  together  in  making  their 
lines,  that  they  could  possibly  get  into  a 
quarrel  about  a  pole,  to  be  cut  in  the  bush- 
es, especially  when  there  were  fifty  other 
(36) 


THEY   LOOK   FOR   POLES.  37 

poles  equally  good  growing  all  around. 
But  they  did. 

The  case  was  this.  They  reached  the 
bank  of  the  brook,  after  walking  about  half 
a  mile,  and  then  followed  the  brook  for 
about  a  fourth  of  a  mile  further,  along  a 
path  which  sometimes  led  through  groves 
and  copses  of  trees,  and  sometimes  through 
grassy  fields.  They  intended  to  go  on  un- 
til they  came  to  a  piece  of  low  land,  which 
in  the  spring  of  the  year  was  swampy  and 
wet,  but  which  in  midsummer  was  dry,  and 
where  the  trees  and  bushes  were  inclined 
to  grow  tall  and  slender.  Georgie  thought 
that  they  would  be  likely  to  find  here,  among 
the  stems  of  the  bushes,  some  that  would  be 
long,  straight  and  slim  enough  to  serve  for 
fishing  poles. 

On  arriving  at  the  spot  they  at  once  be- 
gan to  look  about  for  poles,  and  Georgic's 
4 


38  HUBERT. 

eyes  soon  fell  upon  one  which  he  thought 
would  do  nicely.  It  was  a  long  and  slender 
stem  with  a  length  of  eight  or  ten  feet  free 
from  branches ;  and  as  it  presented  itself  to 
Georgie's  view,  as  he  approached  it  on  one 
side,  it  seemed  quite  straight.  He  called 
Hubert  to  come  and  see  it.  Hubert  said  he 
thought  it  would  make  a  very  good  pole. 

"  It  looks  straight,"  said  he,  "  from  here, 
but  we  must  look  at  it  from  another  side." 

So  saying,  he  forced  his  way  through  the 
bushes  to  get  a  view  of  it  from  another  di- 
rection,— not  entirely  around  to  the  farther 
side,  but  only  half  way  round, — so  as  to 
look  at  it  "  quartering  "  as  the  woodmen  say. 
You  can  never  tell  how  straight  the  stem  of 
a  tree  is  by  looking  at  it  from  one  direction 
only  ;  for  the  crooks  lying  in  that  direction,  if 
there  are  any,  in  the  stem,  would  not  be  ap- 
parent. Thus  if  you  look  at  a  tree  from  the 


THE   CROOKED   POLES.  39 

south  side,  and  it  bends  a  little  toward  the 
south  or  toward  the  north — that  is  in  the 
same  direction  that  you  are  looking  at  it — 
its  crooks  will  not  be  easily  seen.  Standing 
to  the  south  of  it,  you  can  only  distinctly 
see  the  bendings  that  turn  toward  the  east 
or  west.  To  see  the  bendings  toward  the 
north  or  south,  you  must  go  round  to  the 
east  or  west  side. 

When  Hubert  got  into  the  new  position, 
he  found  that  there  was  a  great  bend  in  the 
stem. 

"  There's  a  great  bend  in  it,"  said  he, 
"  but  there  are  no  short  crooks ;  so  I  think 
we  can  straighten  it  after  we  get  it  cut 
down." 

Georgie  looked  at  it  and  then  said  that  he 
would  rather  have  one  that  was  straight  al- 
ready. And  so  he  began  to  look  about  and 
examine  other  stems. 


4O  HUBERT. 

In  the  meantime  Hubert  remained  by  the 
one  which  Georgie  had  first  found,  and 
seemed  to  be  carefully  examining  it.  He 
observed  that  there  were  no  short  crooks  in 
it,  but  only  one  general  bend,  and  this,  he 
thought,  could  be  easily  straightened.  If 
there  are  short  crooks  in  a  pole,  or  cane, 
that  you  are  cutting  in  the  woods,  they  can- 
not be  taken  out ;  but  a  general  bending  of  it, 
in  one  direction,  can  be  easily  remedied. 
Sometimes  you  can  straighten  it  at  once,  as 
soon  as  it  is  cut  down.  A  surer  way,  how- 
ever, is  to  heat  it  before  a  fire,  keeping  it 
there  until  it  has  had  time  to  become  heated 
through.  Then  when  you  straighten  it  it 
will  remain  straight.  The  reason  is,  that  if 
wood  is  hot,  it  "  takes  a  set,"  when  it  is 
bent — at  least  it  is  much  more  inclined  to 
do  this  than  when  it  is  cold. 

A  girl  once  had  a  pretty  little  garden  hoe, 


STRAIGHTENING   THE   POLE.  41 

with  a  long  and  slender  handle,  whiqh  had 
been  nicely  smoothed,  and  was  made  of 
very  pretty  wood,  but  it  had  unfortunately 
become  warped  in  seasoning,  as  wood  some- 
times will,  and  was  bent  a  little.  This  not 
only  injured  the  appearance  of  it,  but  made  it 
somewhat  inconvenient  to  be  used. 

Her  brother,  when  he  discovered  this, 
took  the  hoe  to  the  kitchen  fire,  and  let  it 
lie  there  before  the  fire,  until  the  wood  had 
become  heated  through — as  hot  as  he  could 
make  it  without  danger  of  scorching  the 
wood.  Then  by  placing  it  across  his  knee, 
he  found  he  could  straighten  it  very  easily  ; 
for  now  when  the  fibres  of  the  wood  were 
brought  into  a  new  position  by  the  force 
which  he  applied,  they,  for  some  reason  or 
other  connected  with  their  being  heated, 
accommodated  themselves  to  the  new  ar- 
rangement, and  remained  fixed  in  it.  Or 
4* 


42  HUBERT. 

in  other  words,  and  as  mechanics  usually 
express  it,  they  "  took  a  set." 

Wood  can  be  bent,  and  will  take  a  set  in 
this  way,  when  it  is  seasoned  and  dry,  but 
it  will  do  this  more  readily  when  it  is  green, 
— that  is,  when  the  pores  are  full  of  mois- 
ture. The  moisture,  it  seems,  has  the  effect 
of  softening  the  woody  fibre,  and  making 
it  more  flexible,  and  more  manageable  every 
way.  Sometimes  when  wood  is  already 
seasoned,  so  that  it  bends  with  difficulty, 
the  workman  fills  the  pores  with  water 
again,  by  immersing  the  wood  for  some 
time  in  hot  water,  or  by  steaming  it,  which 
is  a  still  better  method. 

If  a  piece  of  wood  requires  to  be  bent 
much,  it  is  necessary  to  soften  the  wood  by 
water,  or  else  it  cannot  be  done.  You  can 
only  bend  dry  wood  a  little  by  heating  it 
before  the  fire.  If  a  boy  wishes  to  make 


TAKEN   A   SET.  43 

much  of  a  curve  in  his  wood — as  for  ex- 
ample 'he  should  undertake  to  make  a 
frame  sled,  and  should  wish  to  bend  up  the 
forward  ends  of  the  runners,  the  way  would 
be  to  get  out  the  pieces  for  the  runners, 
straight,  and  then  dip  the  forward  ends  as 
far  as  the  bend  was  to  come,  in  boiling 
water — as  for  instance,  in  the  boiler  over  a 
stove  or  range  on  washing  day,  or  in  a 
pretty  deep  kettle  over  a  fire  made  for  the 
purpose  out  of  doors,  and  let  them  remain 
so  until  the  wood  had  become  thoroughly 
impregnated  with  the  hot  water.  He  would 
find,  then,  that  if  the  wood  was  not  too  thick, 
it  would  become  quite  flexible,  and  the  ends 
could  be  bent  with  comparative  ease.  Only 
in  this  case  they  must  be  secured  in  the  bent 
position  until  they  have  dried,  when  it  would 
be  found  that  they  had  taken  a  set,  and  that, 
too,  of  a  very  permanent  character. 


44  HUBERT. 

A  boy  in  the  country  once  made  a  pair 
of  runners  in  this  way,  and  by  means  of 
them  he  fabricated  a  very  good  sled.  The 
plan  which  he  adopted  to  bend  the  ends  of 
the  runners,  and  to  secure  them  in  position 
while  they  were  drying,  .was  this.  He  bored 
two  auger  holes  side  by  side  in  a  piece  of 
plank,  and  then  inserting  the  softened  ends 
of  the  runners  into  these  holes,  he  bent  the 
part  outside  of  the  holes  down  near  the 
plank,  and  tied  them  there.  He  then  leaned 
the  plank,  with  the  runners  thus  lashed  to 
it,  up  against  the  barn,  in  a  sunny  corner,  to 
dry,  and  after  some  days,  when  he  took  the 
bars  out,  he  found  the  curves  which  he  had 
made  had  taken  a  set  in  a  very  satisfactory 
manner ;  and  by  means  of  them  he  after- 
ward made  an  excellent  sled. 


CHAPTER    IV. 
A     Quarrel. 

"T  TUBERT  found,  on  examination,  that 
the  pole  which  Georgie  had  discov- 
ered, with  the  exception  of  the  gentle  bend 
in  it,  was  an  excellent  one  for  a  fishing-pole, 
and  as  Georgie  had  gone  away  and  left  it, 
he  determined  to  take  it  himself. 

"  You  don't  find  one  such  pole  in  a  thou- 
sand," he  said  to  himself,  "  as  this  will  make 
when  it  is  straightened  and  seasoned  and 
planed.  It  will  be  straight  enough  for  me 
to  plane,  I  believe,  or  at  least  to  smooth 
with  a  spoke-shave." 

A  spoke-shave  is  a  very  curious,  and  yet 

(45) 


46  HUBERT. 

a  very  simple  tool,  and  not  dear.  It  is  ex- 
cellent for  shaping  and  smoothing  canes, 
poles,  bows,  arrows,  and  all  such  things. 
It  is  called  a  spoke-shave,  because  it  is 
chiefly  designed  to  be  used  by  wheel-wrights 
and  wagon-makers  in  shaping  and  smooth- 
ing the  spokes  of  wheels. 

Hubert  had  a  spoke-shave  in  his  trunk. 
He  had  brought  it  with  him  to  his  aunt's, 
knowing  that  it  would  be  very  convenient 
for  him  in  many  of  his  operations. 

But  to  return  to  the  story.  Hubert,  after 
coming  to  the  conclusion  that  the  pole  which 
he  was  looking  at  would  make  an  excellent 
one  to  be  taken  home  and  finished  up  for  fu- 
ture use,  took  his  knife  out  of  his  pocket  and 
began  to  cut  it  off  near  the  ground.  He 
understood  that  Georgie  had  abandoned  it. 
But  while  he  was  at  work  cutting  it,  Geor- 
gie came  back  to  the  place  and  looked  on. 


GEORGIE   CLAIMS   THE   POLE.  47 

When  he  saw  that  Hubert  seemed  inclined 
to  value  the  pole,  he  began  to  think  more 
favorably  of  it  himself.  It  very  often  hap- 
pens that  children  do  not  want  a  thing  till 
they  find  that  somebody  else  wants  it,  and 
then  they  want  it  very  much. 

"  Are  you  going  to  take  that  pole  ?"  asked 
Georgie. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Hubert. 

"  But  it  is  too  crooked,"  said  Georgie. 

"  It  is  only  bent,"  said  Hubert,  "  and  I  can 
straighten  it  very  easily." 

"  And  then,  besides,  it  is  my  pole,"  said 
George.  "  I  found  it." 

"  No,"  replied  Hubert,  "  it  is  not  yours. 
You  went  oif  and  left  it." 

"  No,"  replied  Georgie,  "  I  only  went  to 
see  if  I  could  find  a  better  one,  and  I  can't 
find  a  better  one  ;  so  I  want  this." 

By  this  time  Hubert  had  cut  the  pole  off 


48  HUBERT. 

at  the  bottom,  and  was  now  beginning  to 
cut  off  the  little  cluster  of  branches  that 
formed  the  top.  He  did  not  seem  inclined 
to  make  much  reply  to  Georgie's  claim,  and 
Georgie  began  to  feel  a  little  disturbed  in 
mind  at  Hubert's  taking  no  notice  of  him. 

"  I  say  it's  my  pole,"  said  Georgie,  "  be- 
cause I  found  it." 

"  And  I  say  it  is  mine,"  said  Hubert,  "  be- 
cause I  cut  it  down." 

"  But  you  had  no  right  to  cut  it  down," 
said  Georgie,  "  when  it  was  mine ;  for  I 
found  it." 

"  You  looked  at  it,"  replied  Hubert,  "and 
that  was  all.  Do  you  suppose  that  a  boy 
has  a  right  to  all  the  poles  and  trees  in  the 
woods  that  he  happens  to  look  at." 

Next  to  taking  away  from  a  boy  what  he 
considers  as  his  property,  nothing  is  more 
apt  to  vex  and  irritate  him  than  to  make  his 


HUBERT  ALSO.  49 

arguments  appear  ridiculous,  and  Georgie 
began  to  be  quite  out  of  humor.  So  just 
as  Hubert  had  finished  cutting  off  the  top 
of  the  pole  he  took  hold  of  the  lower  end 
of  it,  saying, 

"  It  is  my  pole,  and  I  mean  to  have  it.'-' 

"  No,  it  is  not  your  pole,"  replied  Hubert, 
"  and  you  are  not  going  to  have  it." 

So  while  Georgie  had  hold  of  the  lower 
end  of  the  pole,  Hubert  retained  the  other 
in  his  grasp,  and  they  began  to  pull  against 
each  other.  They  soon  Became  quite  ex- 
cited, and  in  the  struggle  for  the  possession 
of  the  pole,  they  finally  brought  it  across 
the  stem  of  a  tree  which  was  near  them, 
and  one  pulling  upon  one  side  and  the  other 
upon  the  other,  the  pole  cracked  in  the 
middle,  and  was  spoiled. 

They  then  dropped  the  pole,  and  stood 
looking  at  each  other  a  moment  with  an  ex- 


50  HUBERT. 

pression  of  anger  and  defiance  in  their  coun- 
tenances, when  suddenly  Georgie  said, 

"  I  won't  stay  and  play  with  such  a  fel- 
low," and  turned  round  to  walk  away. 

"  Nor  I  either,"  said  Hubert,  and  he 
began  to  walk  off  in  the  contrary  direc- 
tion. 

Now,  I  do  not  know  whether  the  boys 
and  girls  who  may  read  this  book  are  old 
enough  to  understand  much  about  philoso- 
phy, but  there  is  something  about  the  phi- 
losophy of  quarreling  which  is  very  curious, 
and  which  it  is  very  useful  for  everybody  to 
understand. 

It  is  this,  namely :  that  in  almost  all  the 
cases  when. people  quarrel,  the  thing  that 
they  quarrel  about  involves  a  question  which 
has  two  sides  to  it,  and  each  one  of  the  quar- 
relers  sees  only  his  own  side.  Of  course, 
if  he  only  sees  his  own  side,  and  not  all  that 


THE   DISPUTE.  5 1 

of  the  other  party,  it  is  very  natural  that  he 
should  think,  and  honestly  think,  too,  that 
the  other  party  is  wholly  in  the  wrong. 

In  this  case,  for  instance,  each  boy,  as  he 
looked  only  on  his  side  of  the  question,  hon- 
estly thought  that  he  was  right,  and  that 
the  other  was  wholly  in  the  wrong.  Hu- 
bert examined  the  pole  when  Georgie,  after 
looking  at  it,  had  passed  on.  Georgie  had 
done  nothing  at  all  to  it,  except  to  look  at 
it,  and  find  that  it  was  bent.  Hubert  had 
cut  it  down  and  trimmed  off  the  top,  and  it 
seemed  to  him  that  it  was  clearly  and  right- 
fully his  ;  and  all  because  he  only  looked  at 
his  side  of  the  question,  without  paying  any 
attention  to  Georgie's  side. 

Georgie,  on  the  other  hand,  looked  only 
at  his  side,  without  paying  any  attention  to 
Hubert's.  To  him  it  seemed  to  be  a  case 
where  one  boy  found  a  pole,  and  called  an- 


52  HUBERT. 

other  boy  to  see  it,  but  did  not  fully  decide 
to  take  it  until  he  had  looked  a  little  farth- 
er ;  and  while  he  remained  undecided,  the 
other  boy  came  and  took  the  pole  which  he 
had  found,  without  his  leave.  It  was,  in  his 
view,  a  very  decided  case  of  wrong.  The 
pole,  it  honestly  seemed  to  him,  was  clearly 
and  rightfully  his. 

If  each  of  the  other  boys  had  stopped  to 
look  at  the  other  boy's  side  of  the  question 
as  well  as  his  own,  he  would  have  seen  it 
was  a  doubtful  case,  and  it  would  have  been 
comparatively  easy  for  them  to  come  to  some 
amicable  understanding  about  it. 

A  very  large  portion  of  the  quarrels  which 
arise  in  the  world  come  in  this  way — that  is 
from  people  looking  at  only  their  own  side 
of  the  question.  I  advise  you  all,  therefore 
— all  who  read  this  book — when  you  become 
men  and  women,  to  make  this  your  rule, 


LOOK  CAREFULLY  AT  THE   CASE.         53 

namely :  that  whenever  any  misunderstand- 
ing begins  to  arise  between  yourself  and  any 
person,  before  letting  it  grow  into  a  quarrel, 
stop  and  take  time  to  look  carefully  at  the 
case  as  seen  from  /zw-side  of  it.  That  is,  put 
yourself  as  much  as  possible  in  his  case,  and 
imagine  that  you  were  his  lawyer,  and  were 
trying  to  prove  his  claim,  and  see  how  much, 
in  that  case,  you  would  have  to  say  in  his 
favor.  You  may  after  all  find  that  you  are 
in  the  right,  or  at  least  that  your  claim  is 
stronger  than  his ;  but  you  will  be  much 
more  gentle  and  forbearing  in  insisting  on 
your  rights,  after  fairly  considering  his,  and 
the  contention  which  might  otherwise  have 
become  a  terrible  quarrel,  will  perhaps  be 
settled  in  a  very  amiable  manner. 

Nor  is  it  best  to  postpone  putting  this 
rule  into  practice  until   you  are  men  and 
women.     Any  boy  who  is  old  enough  and 
5* 


54  HUBERT. 

sensible  enough  to  understand  the  principle, 
and  who  has  self-command  enough  to  put  it 
into  practice,  will  find  that  he  will  live  much 
more  peaceably  and  happy  with  his  com- 
panions, and  pass  his  time  much  more  plea 
santly  in  all  respects,  by  governing  himself 
by  it  while  he  is  a  boy. 


CHAPTER    V. 
Peace. 

"TTTE  left  the  two  boys,  Georgie  and 
Hubert,  walking  off  in  opposite  di- 
rections from  the  place  where  they  had  been 
playing,  each  in  high  dudgeon.  At  first  they 
both  walked  very  fast,  as  if  they  were  de- 
termined to  get  away  from  each  other  as 
quick  and  as  far  as  possible.  They  were 
each  intending — so  far  as  they  had  formed 
any  distinct  intention  in  their  minds — to  go 
home.  They  scrambled  through  the  bushes 
for  a  little  way  with  great  energy,  but  the 
obstacles  which  they  encountered  impeded 
their  progress  somewhat,  and  possibly  the 

(55) 


56  HUBERT. 

violent  exertion  which  they  made  had  the 
effect  of  working  off  some  portion  of  the 
violence  of  their  anger — or,  as  the  physiolo- 
gists would  say — a  part  of  the  vital  force 
which  was  expending  itself  in  cerebral  ex- 
citement was  diverted,  and  was  employed 
in  supplying  the  muscular  force  necessary 
for  getting  through  the  thickets.  I  don't 
know  how  this  may  be  ;  but  at  any  rate  the 
boys  both  found,  as  they  advanced,  that  they 
became  somewhat  less  eager,  and  they  grad- 
ually slackened  their  pace.  The  thought 
came  suddenly  into  Georgie's  mind  that  he 
was  going  to  lose  all  the  fishing  with  the 
nice  new  fishing-lines  which  he  and  Hubert 
had  taken  so  much  pains  to  make. 

"  I  don't  care,"  he  said  to  himself.  "  I'd 
rather  lose  all  the  fishing  in  the  world,  than 
stay  with  such  a  fellow  as  that." 

But  though  he  said  he  did  not  care,  he 


HUBERT   CHANGES   HIS   MIND.  57 

did  care ;  and  he  soon  began  to  think  that 
it  was  a  great  pity  not  to  be  able  even  to 
try  the  new  lines. 

These  thoughts  made  him  begin  to  feel 
something  like  hesitation  ;  and  by  the  time 
he  had  got  to  the  margin  of  the  bushes,  and 
came  out  into  the  open  field,  he  began  to 
walk  very  slowly,  as  if  somewhat  uncertain 
what  to  do. 

As  for  Hubert,  his  mind  passed  through 
a  similar  series  of  changes.  When  he  first 
set  out  he  said  to  himself, 

"  I  never  saw  such  a  fellow  in  my  life  ! 
To  make  such  a  fuss  about  an  old  pole  not 
worth  two  cents  !  And  when  he  had  no 
right  to  it  at  all ;  only  because  he  had  just 
looked  at  it.  He  might  have  had  the  pole 
just  as  well  as  not.  I  did  not  care  about 
the  old  thing !" 

This  was  very  absurd  and  inconsistent  in 


58  HUBERT. 

Hubert ;  for  if  he  did  not  care  about  the 
old  thing,  why  did  he  refuse  so  strenuously 
to  let  Georgie  have  it  ?  But  when  people 
allow  themselves  to  get  angry,  they  are  very 
likely  to  say  and  do  what  is  inconsistent  and 
absurd. 

Hubert  did  not  distinctly  perceive  that 
what  he  had  said  was  absurd,  but  he  had 
a  kind  of  half  consciousness  of  something 
wrong  ;  so  that  by  the  time  he  reached  the 
margin  of  the  thicket,  at  a  little  distance 
from  the  place  where  Georgie  came  out,  his 
impetuosity,  as  well  as  that  of  Georgie,  had 
considerably  abated.  They,  however,  both 
continued  to  walk  on  in  divergent  direc- 
tions, though  they  walked  more  and  more 
slowly.  Indeed,  if  what  a  certain  ancient 
writer  says  about  anger,  namely,  that  it  is  a 
short  insanity,  is  true,  it  seemed  as  if  these 
boys  were  gradually  coming  to  their  senses. 


COMING   ROUND.  59 

Presently  Georgie  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  of  looking  over  his  shoulder  to 
see  how  far  Hubert  had  got ;  and  he  did 
this  just  at  the  instant  that  Hubert  was 
looking  over  his  shoulder  to  see  how  far 
Georgie  had  got.  So  each  caught  the  other 
looking  back,  and  both  involuntarily  laugh- 
ed ;  but  they  both  also  instantly  made  an 
effort  to  repress  the  laughing,  as  something 
quite  out  of  place  under  the  circumstances, 
and  tried  to  look  sober  and  angry  again. 

So  they  sauntered  along  very  slowly,  and 
very  soon  both  began  to  wish  that  the  other 
would  do  or  say  something  that  would  open 
the  way  for  "  making  up,"  though  neither 
was  prepared  to  take  the  step  himself.  Each 
thought  that  he  was  waiting  for  the  other 
to  do  an  unpleasant  thing,  which,  however, 
they  both  wished  *n  have  done.  This  was 
a  great  mistake.  Instead  of  waiting  to  see 


60  HUBERT. 

which  of  them  would  take  upon  himself  the 
doing  of  a  disagreeable  thing,  it  was  really 
to  determine  which  of  them  should  have  the 
honor  of  doing  a  noble  thing ;  that  is,  of 
making  the  first  acknowledgment  of  being 
in  the  wrong,  and  the  first  advances  toward 
a  reconciliation  after  a  quarrel. 

Pretty  soon  Georgie  saw  a  large  log  lying 
upon  the  ground,  with  bushes  and  weeds 
growing  up  around  one  end  of  it.  He 
stopped  to  look  at  the  place.  He  thought 
he  stopped  to  see  whether  there  was  not  a 
hornet's  nest  under  the  log,  as  it  was  very 
much  such  a  place  as  wasps  and  hornets 
„  ordinarily  choose  for  their  nests,  but  he  was 
really  stopping  to  protract  the  time  and 
give  Hubert  a  chance  to  speak.  Hubert, 
seeing  Georgie  stop  to  examine  the  log,  sat 
down  on  a  large  flat  stone  which  lay  nearly 
in  his  way.  Georgie,  observing  by  a  furtive 


FRIENDS  AGAIN.  6 1 

glance,  that  Hubert  had  stopped  and  taken 
a  seat,  sat  down  himself  on  the  log,  and 
though  he  kept  a  sly  watch  all  the  time 
upon  Hubert's  motions,  he  took  great  care 
not  to  seem  to  be  looking  at  him,  and  made 
great  efforts  to  keep  a  very  stern  and  severe 
expression  of  countenance. 

Both  the  boys  remained  in  this  position  a 
few  minutes  without  saying  a  word.  At 
length  Hubert  suddenly  rose,  and  advanced 
one  or  two  steps  toward  Georgie,  saying : 

"  Georgie,  I  think  you  and  I  are  a  couple 
of  fools." 

Georgie  looked  up  somewhat  astonished, 
but  did  not  say  anything,  because,  in  fact 
he  did  not  know  what  to  say. 

"  At  any  rate,"  said  Hubert,  "  I  think  at 
least  that  I'm  one  fool." 

"And  I  believe  I  am  the  other,"  said 
Georgie. 


62  HUBERT. 

Georgie  rose  at  the  same  time  and  ad- 
vanced toward  Hubert. 

"  To  get  a  quarreling,"  said  Hubert, 
"  about  a  miserable  old  stick,  and  that,  too, 
when  just  such  ones  are  growing  all  about 
us  as  thick  as  bean-poles  in  a  garden." 

"  I  am  sorry  I  did  not  let  you  have  it," 
said  Georgie,  "  when  you  had  taken  so  much 
pains  to  cut  it  down." 

"  And  I  am  sorry  I  did  not  let  you  have 
it,"  said  Hubert,  "  when  you  were  the  one 
that  found  it,  and  did  not  say  that  you  gave 
it  up.  If  it  was  not  broken  you  might  have 
it  now." 

It  was  evident  now  that  both  the  boys 
had  so  far  recovered  their  senses,  after  their 
"  short  insanity,"  that  they  could  see  some 
other  side  of  a  question  besides  their  own. 

The  boys  then  went  back  into  the  woods 
again,  and  began  to  look  out  for  poles. 


ABOUT   FISHING-POLES.  63 

Hubert  proposed  that  they  should  each 
choose  two — a  small  and  slender  one,  not 
very  long,  for  fishing  with  that  afternoon  in 
the  brook,  and  that  then,  after  they  had 
done  fishing,  that  they  should  choose  two 
longer  and  larger  ones  to  be  taken  home 
and  finished  after  they  should  be  seasoned, 
and  kept  to  use  when  they  wished  to  go  a 
fishing  in  the  river,  or  in  a  mill-pond,  or 
wide  stream,  where  they  would  require  to 
reach  out  farther  from  the  shore. 

"  You  see,"  said  Hubert,  "  you  can't  use 
a  long  pole  very  well,  when  you  first  cut  it 
in  the  woods ;  for  if  it  is  long,  it  must  be 
large  in  proportion,  and  then  it  is  very 
heavy.  It  is  very  heavy  when  you  first  cut 
it  in  the  woods." 

"  What  makes  it  so  heavy  then  ?"  asked 
Georgie. 

"  On  account  of  the  sap  that  is  in  it,"  said 


64  HUBERT. 

Hubert ;  "  but  when  you  take  it  home  and 
hang  it  up  somewhere  in  the  shed,  and  let 
it  stay  there  all  summer,  all  the  sap  that  is 
in  it  dries  out,  and  then  it  becomes  a  great 
deal  lighter. 

"  Besides,"  continued  Hubert,  "  we  take 
the  bark  off,  and  smooth  the  bunches  and 
little  knots  all  off,  and  if  we  choose  we  can 
make  it  slender  all  along,  and  so  make  it  as 
light  as  we  please. 

"  You  could  not  do  that  with  a  knife,"  he 
continued,  "  because  the  blade  of  the  knife 
runs  in  and  out,  following  the  grain,  and 
you  can't  make  it  true  ;  but  you  can  do  it 
very  nicely  with  a  spoke-shave." 

"  What  kind  of  a  tool  is  a  spoke-shave  ?" 
asked  Georgie. 

"  Didn't  you  £ver  see  a  spoke-shave  ?" 
asked  Hubert.  "  It  is  a  small  tool  like  a 
short  stick,  with  two  ends  rounded  for  han- 


THE   SPOKE-SHAVE.  65 

dies.  In  the  middle  there  is  a  little  blade 
set,  which  is  very  sharp,  and  the  edge  of  it 
comes  out  from  the  wood  just  far  enough 
for  the  thickness  of  one  shaving.  You  can 
set  the  blade  just  as  you  want  it,  so  as  to 
cut  thick  shavings  or  thin." 

"  I  should  set  it  to  cut  thick  shavings," 
said  Georgie,  "  so  as  to  get  along  faster." 

"  That  depends  upon  what  kind  of  wood 
you  have,"  said  Hubert ;  "  whether  it  is  soft 
and  straight-grained,  or  hard,  and  gnarled, 
and  knotty." 

"  I  would  not  take  any  wood  that  was 
hard,  and  gnarled,  and  knotty,"  said  Geor- 
gie. 

"  Then  you  would  not  take  any  of  the 
prettiest  wood,"  replied  Hubert.  "  If  you 
are  making  a  cane,  the  hard  and  knotty 
wood  makes  the  best  and  prettiest  cane, 
when  it  is  finished  and  varnished  ;  though 
6* 


66  HUBERT. 

it  takes  longer  to  make  it,  because  you  have 
to  make  thinner  shavings." 

"  How  did  you  find  out  all  about  these 
things?"  asked  Georgie. 

"  Isaiah  told  me,"  replied  Hubert. 

By  this  time  the  boys  had  their  poles 
ready.  They  fished  about  three-fourths  of 
an  hour,  and  had  very  good  success.  The 
poles  which  they  had  cut,  small  and  slender 
as  they  were,  answered  the  purpose  very 
well.  When  Georgie  thought  it  was  time 
to  go  home,  the  boys  strung  their  fishes 
upon  twigs,  in  the  usual  way,  and  then,  lay- 
ing them  down  together  in  the  shade,  they 
looked  about  for  two  poles  of  larger  size, 
to  be  taken  home  with  them,  with  a  view 
of  seasoning  them,  and  then  finishing  them 
at  their  leisure  by  means  of  Hubert's  spoke- 
shave. 

Sometimes  at  the  end  of  a  story  there  is 


THE   MORAL.  6/ 

a  moral.  If  any  one  were  to  attempt  to 
draw  a  moral  from  this  chapter,  it  would 
be  this,  that  a  fishing-pole  growing  in  the 
woods,  and  the  subject  of  a  quarrel,  whether 
among  boys  or  men,  are  alike  in  this  respect, 
namely :  that  to  be  able  to  judge  correctly 
of  them,  we  must  look  at  them  from  more 
than  one  side. 

I  am  not  sure,  however,  whether,  strictly 
speaking,  this  is  most  nearly  of  the  nature 
of  a  moral  or  of  a  conundrum. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
A  Land  Gr ant. 

"T  TUBERT,  though  he  was  quite  an  in- 
telligent boy,  and  knew  a  great  deal 
about  many  common  things,  was  not  by  any 
means  a  good  scholar  at  school.  He  was 
very  much  behind-hand  in  all  his  studies. 
He  did  not  like  study  at  all,  nor  books,  nor 
teachers,  nor  anything  that  pertained  to 
school  in  any  way.  He  was  very  active  in 
his  plays,  and  in  his  various  contrivances  for 
amusing  himself  out  of  doors,  or  in  a  little 
place  that  he  called  his  shop  at  his  mother's, 
while  his  mother  was  living  ;  but  if  he  could 

(68) 


GARDENING.  69 

have  had  his  own  way,  he  would  never  have 
gone  into  a  school-room  at  all. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  the  year  that  he 
came  to  live  with  his  aunt,  and  Robert  was 
beginning  to  make  the  garden.  He  went 
out  one  morning  to  see  him.  His  aunt  was 
there,  with  a  large  sun-bonnet  on  her  head, 
giving  directions. 

"Hubert,"  said  she,  when  she  saw  Hu- 
bert coming,  "  I  think  you  had  better  not 
come  into  the  garden  much  while  Robert 
is  making  it.  I  am  afraid  that  you  will  in- 
terrupt Robert  at  his  work." 

"  Oh,  no,  auntie !"  said  Hubert.  "  I  won't 
interrupt  him.  I'll  help  him  rather." 

"Ah!  I'm  afraid  not,"  said  his  aunt. 
"  There  is  nothing  so  troublesome  when  you 
are  at  work  in  the  garden,  as  a  child  about. 
They  are  always  meddling  with  the  tools 
and  running  over  the  beds." 


7O  HUBERT. 

"  Why,  aunt !"  said  Hubert.  "  Don't  you 
suppose  that  I  have  got  sense  enough  yet 
not  to  run  over  the  beds  ?" 

Hubert  had  become  by  this  time  some- 
what better  acquainted  with  his  aunt  than 
on  the  first  day  of  his  coming,  and  was  less 
afraid  in  speaking  to  her. 

"  Well,"  said  she,  hesitatingly,  and  after 
a  moment's  pause,  "  you  may  stay  a  little 
while  this  morning,  but  if  he  gives  you  any 

trouble,  Robert,  or  interrupts  you  at  your 

% 
work,  send  him  right  out." 

So  saying,  Mrs.  Wood  turned  to  go  into 
the  house,  and  Hubert  was  so  much  vexed 
at  what  she  said,  that  he  felt  impelled  to 
relieve  his  feeling  by  making  up  a  face  at 
her,  behind  her  back,  as  she  went  out.  I 
don't  wonder  at  his  being  a  little  vexed  at 
finding  her  so  continually  inclined  to  take 
it  for  granted  that  he  was  a  troublesome 


HELPING   ROBERT.  71 

and  bad  boy  ;  but  he  ought  not  to  have 
made  a  face  at  her. 

Hubert  immediately  went  to  work  help- 
ing Robert  all  he  could.  He  raked  up  the 
weeds  which  Robert  threw  out  of  the  beds 
in  spading  them  up,  and  then  put  them 
into  a  wheelbarrow  and  wheeled  them  away. 

He  brought  Robert  the  tools  which  he 
wanted  from  time  to  time,»and  so  saved  him 
a  good  many  steps.  He,  moreover,  went 
of  various  errands  for  him,  whenever  and 
wherever  Robert  had  occasion  to  send  him. 

After  this  Mrs.  Wood,  finding,  through 
the  account  which  Robert  gave  her,  that 
Hubert,  when  in  the  garden,  was  a  help  and 
not  a  hindrance  to  him  in  his  work,  allowed 
him  to  go  into  the  garden  when  he  pleased. 
In  about  a  week  the  garden  was  all  laid  out. 
The  flower-beds  were  made,  and  some  of 
them  were  sown,  and  the  quarters  intended 


72  HUBERT. 

for  corn,  potatoes  and  other  garden  vege- 
tables, were  arranged.  Two  rows  of  peas 
had  been  planted  a  week  or  two  before,  and 
were  just  beginning  to  show  their  heads 
above  the  ground. 

The  sight  of  these  peas  coming  up  awa- 
kened in  Hubert  a  strong  desire  to  set  some- 
thing a  growing  himself. 

"  I  wish  aunt  would  let  me  have  a  gar- 
den," he  said.  "  I  mean  to  ask  her  the  next 
time  she  comes  out." 

So  he  did,  but  his  aunt  shook  her  head, 
saying, 

"  Oh,  no,  Hubert,  my  dear.  I  don't  think 
that  would  be  worth  while.  You  see  you 
would  soon  get  tired  of  it,  and  it  would  all 
grow  up  to  weeds." 

Hubert  looked  disappointed. 

"  You  see,  Hubert  dear,"  said  his  aunt, 
when  she  saw  how  disappointed  he  looked, 


HUBERT  WANTS  A  GARDEN.      73 

"  you  won't  care  about  it  long,  if  you  have 
a  garden.  Besides,  you  can  see  the  flowers 
in  my  beds,  just  as  well  as  if  they  were  in 
your  own,  and  I  shall  give  you  some  of 
them  sometimes,  when  you  are  a  good  boy. 
Then,  as  for  weeding  them  and  taking  care 
of  them,  you  can  have  plenty  of  that  work 
to  do  on  my  beds,  whenever  you  wish,  and 
that  will  be  all  the  same  thing." 

Hubert  thought  it  would  not  be  the  same 
thing  at  all,  but  he  did  not  know  exactly 
how  to  express  the  reason  in  words,  and  so 
he  remained  silent. 

"  At  any  rate,"  continued  Mrs.  Wood,  "  I 
could  not  let  you  have  a  bed  in  my  garden, 
for  we  have  to  keep  my  garden  specially 
nice.  Robert  is  very  particular  about  hav- 
ing everything  in  order  in  my  beds." 

"  But,  perhaps,"  she  added,  after  a  mo- 
ment's pause,  and  then,  after  hesitating 
7 


74  HUBERT. 

a  moment,  she  turned  to  Robert,  and 
said, 

"  You  will  reserve  a  piece  of  ground  for 
your  second  planting  of  peas,  I  suppose, 
Robert." 

"  Yes,  Mrs.  Wood,"  said  Robert.  "  I  usu- 
ally reserve  two  or  three  pieces  of  ground. 
We  generally  plant  peas  at  least  three  times." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mrs.  Wood.  "  Then 
we  can  arrange  it  quite  nicely.  You  can 
let  Hubert  ha\re  one  of  those  reserved  beds. 
And  so,  Hubert,  you  can  have  a  good  place 
for  your  garden  as  long  as  you  will  want  it. 
You  will  get  tired  of  it,  }^ou  know,  before 
the  time  comes  for  planting  the  peas,  which 
won't  be  till  three  or  four  weeks  from  this, 
perhaps.  That  will  be  just  what  you  would 
like,  won't  it,  my  dear  ?" 

"  But  suppose  I  don't  get  tired  of  it,"  said 
Hubert,  "  and  want  to  keep  it." 


MRS.   WOOD'S   DOUBTS."  75 

"  There's  no  danger  of  that,"  said  Mrs. 
Wood.  "  You  will  be  tired  of  taking  care 
of  it  and  pulling  up  the  weeds,  long  before 
that  time.  The  little  rogues  grow  very  fast, 
and  they  come  up  by  the  million." 

"  But,  auntie,  "said  Hubert.  "  I  have  had 
a  garden  before,  and  kept  it  in  good  order 
all  summer,  and  gathered  seeds  from  it  in 
the  fall." 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Mrs.  Wood,  shaking 
her  head.  "  I  have  some  doubts  about  the 
order  that  you  kept  it  in.  It  might  have 
been  what  you  would  call  in  good  order. 
However,  I  wont  say  positively  that  you 
must  give  up  your  garden  in  three  weeks. 
If  I  find  you  do  really  keep  it  nicely,  I  may 
be  tempted  to  let  you  keep  it  longer." 

"  All  summer  ?"  asked  Hubert. 

"  Well,  I  don't  know  about  all  summer," 
replied  Mrs.  Wood.  "  But  we  will  see." 


76  •  HUBERT. 

"  Robert,"  she  said,  turning  toward  Rob- 
ert, who  was  at  work  near,  "  suppose  Hu- 
bert should  give  up  his  garden  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  summer,  is  there  any  seed  that 
can  be  put  in  as  late  as  that,  that  would 
come  to  anything  ?" 

"  I  suppose  we  could  raise  some  turnips 
upon  it,"  said  Robert. 

"  Very  well,  then,"  said  Mrs.  Wood,  "  you 
shall  have  your  garden  as  long  as  you  keep 
it  in  perfect  order. 

"  You  see,  I  am  willing  to  indulge  you  in 
anything  reasonable."  Mrs.  Wood  added  ; 
"  and  to  show  you  that  I  wish  to  do  all  I 
can  to  make  you  happy,  I  will  come  out  day 
after  to-morrow  and  help  you  arrange  your 
garden,  and  give  you  my  advice  about  the 
kinds  of  seeds  you  had  better  sow  in  it.  I 
shall  be  engaged  to-day  and  to-morrow,  but 
it  will  take  you  all  that  time  to  get  your 


MRS.   WOOD   CONSENTS.  77 

ground  ready.  You  must  dig  it  deep  and 
rake  it  fine,  and  line  it  out  perfectly  straight 
and  square  at  the  sides  and  corners." 

So  saying,  Mrs.  Wood  went  away,  leaving 
Robert  to  select  a  piece  of  ground. 

As  soon  as  his  aunt  had  gone,  Hubert  sat 
down  upon  a  seat  by  the  side  of  the  broad 
alley  of  the  garden,  to  reflect  upon  what 
had  been  said  and  done. 

"  I've  a  great  mind  not  to  have  any  gar- 
den at  all,"  he  said  to  himself  in  his  vexation, 

But  Robert  interrupted  his  reverie  by 
proposing  to  go  with  him  and  select  a  place. 
Hubert  rose  slowly,  and  somewhat  reluc- 
tantly, and  followed  him.  He  thought  that 
there  would  at  least  be  no  harm  in  seeing 
the  place.  Now,  Robert  was  very  much 
disposed  to  keep  Hubert  all  he  could,  as, 
indeed,  he  ought  to  have  been,  considering 
how  much  Hubert  had  helped  him. 
7* 


78  HUBERT. 

He  accordingly  took  Hubert  along  the 
walks,  and  showed  him  several  plots  which 
he  could  have.  Hubert  began  to  be  some- 
what interested  in  the  selection.  Finally  a 
place  was  found,  somewhat  retired,  which 
Hubert  said  he  liked  the  best.  It  extended 
along  the  side  of  a  broad  walk  for  about 
twenty  feet,  and  was  bounded  at  the  two 
ends  by  two  narrow  walks,  running  at  right 
angles  to  the  broad  one. 

"  There,"  said  Robert,  "  you  can  have  a 
piece  of  ground  here.  It  is  about  twenty 
feet  long." 

"  And  how  wide  can  I  have  it  ?"  asked 
Hubert. 

"  Any  width  you  please,"  said  Robert. 
"  You  can  go  back  as  far  as  you  like. 
Only  don't  take  more  land  than  you  think 
you  can  take  good  care  of.  They  say 
that  farmers  often  miss  it  by  having  too 


THE   PLOT   MEASURED.  79 

much  land  ;  more  than  they  can  take  good 
care  of." 

Hubert  placed  his  right  foot  at  the  mar- 
gin of  the  alley,  and  then  took  three  long 
steps  across  his  land. 

"  There !"  said  he,  turning  on  his  heel 
upon  the  ground,  at  the  spot  where  the 
three  paces  ended,  to  make  a  mark,  "  I 
would  like  to  have  my  land  come  as  far  as 
this." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Robert ;  "  go  and  get 
a  stake,  and  drive  it  down  at  your  mark. 
Then  go  and  get: the  measuring-pole,  and 
measure  the  same  distance  at  the  two  ends 
by  the  narrow  walks,  and  stretch  the  line 
along,  and  so  lay  out  a  narrow  path  along 
the  back  side  of  your  lot.  That  will  mark 
it  out,  and  then  you  can  go  to  work  upon  it 
as  soon  as  you  please." 


CHAPTER   VII. 
Hindering  instead  of  Helping. 

HTUBERT  determined  to  hurry  forward 
his  work  so  as,  if  possible,  to  have  his 
garden  all  made  and  planted  before  his  aunt 
should  come  to  help  him  with  her  advice. 
He  was  very  distrustful  in  respect  to  the 
aid  which  he  should  receive  from  such  coun- 
sel and  advice  as  he  thought  she  would  give 
him. 

So  he  worked  diligently  all  the  time  that 
he  had,  that  day  and  the  next.  He  called 
upon  Robert  several  times  for  advice,  and 
Robert  gave  him  advice  in  the  right  way; 
that  is,  he  aided  him  in  finding  the  best 
(80) 


HUBERT   PLANTS   HIS   GARDEN.  8 I 

means  of  doing  what  Hubert  himself  wished 
to  do ;  whereas,  I  am  very  much  afraid  that 
if  his  aunt  had  been  there,  her  idea  would 
not  have  been  to  aid  him  in  doing  what  he 
himself  wished  to  do,  but  to  interfere,  as 
he  would  have  called  it,  with  his  plans, 
and  urged  him  to  adopt  others  of  her 
own. 

He,  therefore,  went  on  briskly,  and  planned 
and  planted  his  garden  according  to  his  own 
ideas. 

On  the  morning  of  the  day  which  his  aunt 
had  appointed  for  helping  him,  she  told  him 
at  breakfast  that  she  would  come  out  about 
nine  o'clock  and  help  him  in  arranging  his 
garden.  He  told  her  at  once  that  it  was  all 
done.  She  expressed  her  surprise  at  this, 
and  asked  him,  in  a  somewhat  disappointed 
tone,  why  he  had  not  waited  for  her  to  ad- 
vise him  about  it. 


82  HUBERT. 

"  However,"  said  she,  "  it  is  no  great  mat- 
ter. I  see  what  we  can  do." 

Her  idea  was  that  after  all,  Hubert's  hav- 
ing planted  his  garden  would  do  no  great 
harm. 

0 

"  The  ground,  in  the  spring,"  said  she  to 
herself,  "  is  full  of  all  sorts  of  seeds,  both  of 
weeds  and  also  of  the  flowers  which  grew 
the  year  before,  and  those  which  Hubert 
has  planted  will  not  make  much  addition. 

"  We  can  simply  pay  no  attention  to  what 
he  has  sown,"  she  continued,  in  her  thoughts, 
"  but  plant  the  ground  over  again,  just  as  if 
nothing  had  been  done  to  it,  and  so  let  the 
seeds  which  he  has  put  in  come  up  if  they 
have  a  mind  to,  with  the  weeds,  and  be 
pulled  out  in  the  weeding." 

Accordingly,  at  nine  o'clock,  Mrs.  Wood 
went  out  into  the  garden  and  approached 
Hubert  with  a  very  smiling  face. 


MRS.   WOOD   DISSATISFIED.  83 

"  Well,  my  dear,"  she  said,  "  where  is  the 
bed  which  Robert  has  given  you.  I'll  show 
you  now  exactly  what  to  do." 

Hubert  led  the  way  to  the  bed.  It  was 
in  the  back  part  of  the  garden,  on  the  mar- 
gin of  a  quarter  which  was  to  be  appropri- 
ated to  corn.  Across  the  alley  was  another 
plot,  which  Robert  had  said  was  to  be  de- 
voted to  early  potatoes. 

Mrs.  Wood  looked  a  little  dissatisfied 
when  she  saw  the  spot. 

"  Is  this  the  place  ?"  she  said.  "  I  am 
rather  sorry  that  Robert  chose  this  place  ; 
it  is  a  little  too  public  for  your  garden.  I 
was  in  hopes  that  he  would  find  a  place 
more  out  of  the  way." 

"  But,  aunt,"  said  Hubert,  "  this  place  is 
as  far  out  of  the  way  as  it  can  be,  and  yet 
be  in  the  garden.  It  is  going  to  be  all  corn 
and  potatoes  about  here." 


84  HUBERT. 

"  Well,"  said  Mrs.  Wood,  speaking,  how- 
ever, still  in  a  doubtful  and  hesitating  man- 
ner. "  Well !  never  mind  !  Since  he  has 
given  it  to  you,  and  especially  as  I  see  you 
have  dug  it  all  up,  I  suppose  you  had  better 
keep  it.  And  now  about  the  kinds  of  seeds 
that  you  had  better  sow  in  it." 

"  But,  aunt,  it  is  all  sowed  already,"  said 
Hubert.  "  I  put  in  all  seeds  yesterday.  I 
had  the  seeds  in  my  trunk.  I  brought  them 
with  me.  There  is  not  room  for  any  more 
at  all." 

"  What  is  that  great  circle  in  the  middle 
of  the  bed  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Wood. 

Mrs.  Wood  observed  marks  of  a  large 
circle  having  been  made  in  the  middle  of 
the  bed,  so  large  as  take  up  the  whole  width 
of  it,  which  was  about  eight  feet.  The  cir- 
cumference of  this  circle  was  defined  by  a 
low,  flattened  ridge,  which  extended  all 


HUBERT'S  WIGWAM.  85 

around  it.  Hubert  had  marked  the  outline 
quite  exactly  by  means  of  a  stake,  in  the 
centre,  and  a  piece  of  twine  nearly  three 
feet  long  for  radius. 

"  What  is  that  circle  for  ?"  asked  Mrs. 
Wood.  "  What  have  you  planted  there  ?" 

"  Beans,"  said  Hubert. 

• 

"  Beans  !"  repeated  his  aunt.  "  But  it 
seems  to  me  Hubert,  my  dear,  I  would  not 
have  beans  in  my  garden,  if  I  were  you. 
You  can  get  a  great  deal  prettier  flowers 
than  beans." 

"  I  don't  want  them  for  the  flowers/'  said 
Hubert,  "  I  want  them  for  the  shade." 

"  For  the  shade  !"  repeated  Mrs.  Wood, 
quite  surprised. 

"  Yes,  aunt,"  said  Hubert.  "  That's  where 
I  am  going  to  have  my  wigwam." 

"  Your  wigwam  !"   repeated  Mrs.  Wood, 
more  and  more  surprised. 
8 


86  HUBERT. 

Hubert  then  went  on  to  explain  that  he 
was  going  to  have  a  wigwam  in  his  garden, 
like  one  that  he  had  in  his  garden  at  home, 
which  Isaiah  showed  him  how  to  make.  He 
first  planted  beans — those  of  the  climbing 
kind — in  a  great  circle.  Then  when  they 
came  up  he  cut  poles  out  of  the  woods, 
leaving  the  tops,  long  and  slender,  upon 
them.  He  stuck  the  poles  into  the  ground 
around  the  circle,  and  tied  the  tops  together 
over  head.  Then  in  the  middle  of  the  sum- 
mer, when  the  beans  had  grown  up  high,  he 
had  a  nice  wigwam,  where  he  could  go  in 
and  sit  in  the  shade.  He  set  the  two  poles 
that  came  in  front,  he  said,  farther  apart 
than  the  others,  so  as  to  make  room  for  a 
door. 

Mrs.  Wood  did  not  seem  so  much  pleased 
and  interested  with  this  idea  of  a  wigwam, 
as  Hubert  might  have  expected.  On  the 


MRS.   WOOD   STILL  DISSATISFIED.        87 

contrary,  she  looked  very  serious,  and  said 
at  length,  shaking  her  head  slowly  and 
thoughtfully, 

"  But  it  seems  to  me,  Hubert,  that  I 
should  not  want  a  wigwam  in  my  garden, 
if  I  were  you,  nor  beans.  It  would  be  a 
great  deal  better  to  have  pretty  flowers. 
If  I  were  you,  I  would  rake  that  big  circle 
all  over,  and  make  some  pretty  little  beds 
in  the  place  of  it." 

Hubert  looked  as  if  he  felt  very  little  in- 
clined to  accept  this  advice,  and  so  his  aunt 
did  not  press  it  upon  him. 

"  I  think  you  will  be  sorry,"  said  she  ; 
"  but,  however,  you  shall  have  it  as  you 
like.  But  I  think  that  when  your  seeds 
come  up,  you  will  wish  you  had  taken  my 
advice,  and  put  into  your  garden  something 
prettier  than  those  great  coarse  beans." 

So  Mrs.  Wood  went  away  dissatified  her- 


88  HUBERT. 

self,  and  leaving  Hubert  even  more  dissatis- 
fied and  unhappy  still. 

Mrs.  Wood  was  the  more  willing  to  con- 
sent at  last,  though  reluctantly,  to  Hubert's 
planting  his  garden  in  his  own  way,  on  ac- 
count of  her  being  so  confident  that  he 
would  get  tired  of  it  in  a  short  time,  and 
would  not  take  good  care  of  it,  and  that  it 
would  then  be  easy  for  her  to  persuade  him 
to  give  it  up,  and  let  Robert  put  turnips  in 
the  ground. 

It  so  happened  that  a  few  days  after  this 
Mrs.  Wood  went  out  of  town,  and  was  gone 
about  three  weeks.  In  the  meantime  Hu- 
bert's seeds  came  up,  and  as  soon  as  they 
were  so  far  out  of  the  ground  that  he  could 
distinguish  the  flowers  from  the  weeds,  he 
attended  carefully  to  the  weeding  of  the 
bed,  and  put  it  in  what  seemed  to  him  ex- 
cellent order.  He  went  over  it  carefully 


HUBERT   PREPARES   FOR   INSPECTION.     89 

again  the  day  before  his  aunt  was  to  return, 
so  that  she  might  see  that  it  was  safe  to 
trust  him  with  a  piece  of  ground.  He 
wheeled  away  all  the  weeds  from  the  paths, 
and  then  straightened  the  edges  of  his  bed 
as  carefully  as  possible.  Of  course  he  could 
not  get  the  sides  perfectly  straight,  nor  make 
the  corners  perfectly  square  ;  nor  could  he 
get  out  every  one  of  the  weeds.  Some  little 
rogues  will  hide  away  where  you  cannot 
find  them  ;  and  even  if  you  could  find  and 
eradicate  every  single  weed  that  has  shown 
its  head  above  ground,  and  leave  your  gar- 
den perfectly  free  at  night,  some  would  come 
up  while  you  were  asleep,  so  that  your  beds 
would  not  be  perfectly  free  in  morning. 

When  Mrs.  Wood  went  out  into  her  gar- 
den on  the  day  after  her  return,  Hubert 
was  quite  eager  to  take  her  to  see  his  bed. 
His  aunt  showed  no  interest  in  going,  being 


9O        .  HUBERT. 

occupied  in  examining  her  own  beds,  and 
in  giving  fresh  directions  to  Robert.  She 
put  Hubert  off  several  times,  but  at  last  she 
said,  "  Well,  I  suppose  I  must  go  and  see 
your  bed,  and  I  may  as  well  go  now,  per- 
haps, as  at  any  time." 

When  she  came  to  the  bed,  she  surveyed 
it  a  few  minutes  in  silence,  and  then  said, 
speaking  hesitatingly  and  doubtfully, 

"  Well,  well,  Hubert !  on  the  whole,  you 
have  done  pretty  well ;  better,  in  fact,  than 
I  expected.  Your  beans  have  come  up 
nicely — but  don't  you  wish  that  you  had 
taken  my  advice,  and  planted  something 
prettier  there  ? 

"  And,  Hubert,  it  would  be  a  good  plan," 

she  continued,  "  to  make  the  edges  of  your 

• 
bed  straight,  and  the  corners  square.     You 

have  got  it  in  pretty  good  shape  now,  but 
I  am  very  particular  about  everything  in 


THE   INSPECTION   DISCOURAGING.         9! 

my  garden.  I  must  have  every  thing  perfect. 
And  how  about  the  weeds  ?  Let  me  see  if 
you  have  got  out  all  the  weeds." 

So  saying,  she  began  to  look  very  closely 
along  the  rows  of  plants  that  were  coming 
up,  pushing  them  aside  with  her  hands,  to 
see  if  there  were  any  hidden  weeds  to  be 
found. 

"  You've  done  pretty  well  on  the  whole," 
she  said.  "  But  you  have  not  found  all  the 
weeds.  See  !  there's  one,  and  there's  an- 
other, and  there's  another  !  There  are  quite 
a  number.  They  are  small,  it  is  true,  but 
they'll  soon  grow  bigger  if  you  don't  keep 
them  out.  You  can't  be  too  particular  in 
doing  your  weeding  thoroughly.  You  know 
the  ground  was  to  be  forfeited  if  you  did 
not  keep  it  clear  of  weeds." 

Hubert  was  beginning  to  feel  very  much 
disturbed  in  mind  and  discouraged.  He 


92  HUBERT. 

said  nothing,  but  turned  his  face  a  little  to 
one  side,  as  if  to  conceal  his  emotion.  His 
aunt  perceived  that  he  was  troubled,  and 
said, 

"  But  you  need  not  be  disheartened  about 
it.  I  don't  know  but  that  you  have  done  as 
well  as  I  could  have  expected.  We  ought 
not  to  expect  that  little  boys  should  be  able 
to  keep  a  garden  very  nicely.  It  is  very 
particular  work,  you  know.  I  told  you  that 
you  would  not  persevere  and  keep  the  weeds 
out,  and  I  ought  not  to  expect  you  should. 
Besides,  you  really  have  done  it  pretty  well, 
considering." 

These  words,  instead  of  comforting  Hu- 
bert, only  seemed  to  trouble  him  more  and 
more,  and  Mrs.  Wood  perceiving  it,  thought 
she  would  not  press  the  subject  any  farther, 
but  turned  to  go  away,  saying  to  herself, 
"  his  feelings  seen)  to  be  hurt,  though  I  don't 


THE   STANDARD   OF   EXCELLENCE.        93 

know  why.  I  am  sure  I  have  not  said  any- 
thing to  trouble  him.  On  the  contrary,  I 
have  said  everything  to  excuse  him.  Per- 
haps I  said  too  much.  It  won't  do  for  me  to 
be  so  indulgent  as  to  lower  his  standard  and 
make  him  careless." 

Mrs.  Wood  made  a  great  point  of  keeping 
up  the  standard  of  excellence  for  children 
very  high,  which  is  an  excellent  thing,  pro- 
vided it  is  done  in  the  right  way. 

As  soon  as  she  had  gone,  Hubert  walked 
slowly  away  in  the  contrary  direction.  He 
sauntered  along  a  path  which  led  to  the  end 
of  the  garden,  where  there  was  a  stile,  lead- 
ing over  into  a  field  beyond.  He  went  over 
the  stile,  and  sat  down  upon  the  lower  step, 
on  the  side  toward  the  field,  where  he  was, 
in  a  great  measure,  out  of  sight.  He  re- 
mained here  for  several  minutes,  doing  no- 
thing except  that  he  pulled  off,  in  apparent 


94  HUBERT. 

abstraction,  some  heads  of  grass  and  clover 
that  grew  by  his  side,  and  threw  them  out 
into  the  path  before  him. 

Presently  he  rose,  returned  over  the  stile, 
and  began  to  walk  back  along  the  path  to- 
ward the  house,  with  the  air  of  one  who, 
after  a  period  of  doubt  and  uncertainty,  had 
come  to  a  conclusion.  He  went  directly  to 
the  place  where  the  garden  tools  were  kept, 
and  took  a  spade.  He  then  returned  to  his 
ground  and  began  spading  it  up,  commenc- 
ing at  one  end,  and  taking  in  the  path  which 
he  had  made  along  the  back  side  of  it,  and 
turning  everything  under.  He  persevered 
diligently  at  this  work  for  an  hour,  and  at 
the  end  of  that  time  all  traces  of  his  garden 
were  obliterated,  except  that  the  portion 
of  the  ground  which  it  had  occupied 
had  the  appearance  of  having  been  spaded 
over. 


ROBERT'S  SURPRISE.  95 

When  this  was  done,  he  went  and  put 
away  the  spade,  and  then  he  called  out  to 
Robert,  who  was  working  at  a  little  distance 
from  him,  saying, 

"  Robert,  isn't  it  almost  time  for  you  to 
put  in  your  second  planting  of  peas  ?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Robert,  "  I'm  going  to  do  it 
to-morrow." 

"  Well,  you  can  put  them  in  my  bed." 

"  In  your  bed  ?"  exclaimed  Robert,  sur- 
prised. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Hubert.  "  I've  spaded  it 
up  all  ready  for  you.  I'm  not  going  to  have 
any  garden." 

"  Master  Hubert,"  exclaimed  Robert,  "  I 
did  not  know  that  you  were  so  changea- 
ble." 

"  You  won't  have  any  work  to  do  to  pre- 
pare ground,"  continued  Hubert,  "  but  you 
will  have  some  extra  trouble  about  the  weed- 


96 


HUBERT. 


ing.  There  were  a  good  many  of  my  flow- 
ers that  had  not  come  up,  and  if  they  come 
up  now,  after  your  peas  are  planted,  they'll 
only  be  weeds." 


CHAPTER    VIII. 
The   Two  Locomotives. 

evening  Georgie  was  talking  with 
his  father,  and  the  conversation  turned 
on  Hubert.  Georgie  said  he  liked  Hubert 
very  much  indeed. 

"  And    he    knows    more,"  said   Georgie, 
eagerly,  "  than  any  boy  I  ever  saw." 
"  Ah  !"  said  his  father. 
"  Yes,  sir,"  said  Georgie.     "  He   learned 
so  many  things  that  Isaiah  taught  him.    But 
then  he's  a  very  poor  scholar." 

"  That's  strange,"  said  his  father ;  "  that 
he  should  know  more  than  other  boys,  and 
9  (97) 


98  HUBERT. 

yet  be  a  poor  scholar.  What  makes  you 
think  that  he  is  a  poor  scholar?" 

"  He  says  so  himself,"  replied  Georgie ; 
"  especially  in  arithmetic.  He  says  he  hates 
arithmetic.  He  can't  understand  it  at  all." 

"  Perhaps  there  is  some  defect  in  his 
brain,"  said  his  father ;  "  or  perhaps  he  is 
only  off  the  track." 

Juno  was  sitting  at  the  window  sewing 
during  this  conversation,  and  she  listened 
to  it  attentively. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  his  being  off  the 
track  y  asked  Georgie. 

"  I'll  tell  you  a  story  about  it,"  said  his 
father. 

The  truth  was  that  Georgie's  father  per- 
ceived that  Juno  was  listening  to  what  he 
was  saying,  and  he  conceived  the  idea  of 
telling  the  story  quite  as  much  with  refer- 
ence to  her  benefit  as  for  Georgie's. 


STORY   OF  AN   ENGINEER.  99 

"  Once  there  was  an  engineer,"  said  he, 
commencing  the  story, "  who  had  the  charge 
of  a  number  of  locomotives,  and  among  them 
there  were  two  that  would  not  go  well.  The 
men  sent  for  the  engineer  to  come  and  see 
what  was  the  matter.  The  locomotives 
would  go  a  little  way,  they  said,  with  a 
great  deal  of  hitching  and  jolting,  and  then 
they  would  stop  altogether. 

"  So  the  engineer  went  to  see  them.  He 
examined  the  first  very  carefully,  turned 
the  different  handles,  set  the  different  parts 
in  motion,  and  noticed  how  they  worked, 
and  finally  found  that  the  difficulty  was  in 
the  cylinder.  So  he  had  the  head  of  the 
cylinder  unscrewed,  and  there  he  found  that 
the  machinist,  in  putting  the  engine  togeth- 
er, had  forgotten  to  pack  the  piston." 

"  What  is  that  ?"  asked  Georgie. 

"  Why  the  piston  is  a  round  thing,"  said 


100  HUBERT. 

his  father,  "  that  moves  to  and  fro  in  the 
cylinder,  as  the  steam  drives  it  one  way  and 
the  other.  It  is  meant  to  fit  the  inside  of 
the  cylinder  exactly,  so  that  the  steam  can- 
not leak  by  it.  The  thing  inside  a  squirt- 
gun  by  which  you  force  out  the  water,  is  a 
piston.  It  might,  perhaps  be  called  a  kind 
of  movable  stopper." 

"  I  know  now,"  said  Georgie.  "  We  al- 
ways wind  tow  around  it  in  the  squirt-gun, 
to  prevent  it  from  leaking." 

"  Yes,"  said  his  father,  "  and  that  tow  is 
the  packing.  Now  the  machinist  had  for- 
gotten to  put  the  packing  around  his  piston, 
and  so  the  steam  escaped  by  the  sides  of  it, 
and  the  engine  could  not  work  with  any 
power. 

"  When  the  engineer  found  what  the  diffi- 
culty was,  he  said, 

"  '  This  engine  can  never  do  any  work  in 


"  OFF   THE   TRACK."  IOI 

this  condition.  It  must  go  back  to  the  ma- 
chine shop  and  have  the  piston  packed.' 

"  Then  he  went  to  the  other  locomotive 
and  began  to  examine  that.  He  looked  at  all 
the  joints,  tried  the  valves  and  the  supply- 
pipes,  watched  the  working  of  the  piston- 
rod,  and  everything  seemed  right.  At  last 
he  crept  under  the  engine,  and  began  to  ex- 
amine the  state  of  things  there,  and  very 
soon  he  suddenly  exclaimed, 

"  '  There  is  nothing  the  matter  with  this 
engine.  The  only  trouble  is  she  is  off  the 
track. 

"  '  See !"  said  he,  and  he  showed  the  work- 
men that  the  wheels  had  not  all  their  proper 
bearing  on  the  rails.  Two  of  them  were 
out  of  place,  and  were  running  on  the  sleep- 
ers. 

"  The  engineer  then  went  back  along  the 
track,  and  there  he  found  that  the  wheels 
9* 


102  HUBERT. 

had  been  off  the  rails  for  some  time.  There 
were  marks  left  on  the  sleepers  where  the 
flanges  had  cut  into  the  wood,  and  places 
where  the  men  had  put  small  sticks  of  wood 
from  the  tender,  to  bridge  over  little  hollows 
and  to  help  the  wheels  along.  It  was  no 
wonder  that  the  locomotive  made  a  great 
deal  of  hitching  and  jolting  in  trying  to  go 
over  such  a  way  as  this,  and  that  it  made 
very  slow  progress,  when  it  did  go. 

"  When  the  engineer  satisfied  himself 
what  the  difficulty  was,  he  ordered  the  men 
to  bring  on  the  jack-screws.  He  set  these 
jack-screws  under  the  engine,  and  by  the 
prodigious  force  which  they  exerted,  raised 
the  heavy  weight,  till  he  could  bring  the 
wheels  into  their  places,  and  the  engine  then 
went  on  merrily,  trundling  along  on  the 
track  at  a  great  rate  of  speed,  as  if  she  en- 
joyed it." 


THE   LOCOMOTIVES.  1 03 

"  And  did  they  mend  the  other  one,  too  ?" 
asked  Georgie. 

"  I  suppose  so,"  replied  his  father. 

"  Now,  boys  in  their  studies,"  continued 
his  father,  "  are  in  one  respect  like  these 
locomotives.  When  they  are  not  good 
scholars,  it  may  be  that  there  is  some  in- 
ternal difficulty,  which  makes  their  minds 
incapable  of  working  well ;  or  it  may  be 
that  their  minds  are  all  right,  and  that  the 
whole  trouble  is  that  they  are  off  the  track. 
In  that  case,  all  you  have  got  to  do  is  to  get 
them  on  the  track  again,  and  then  they  go 
on  very  well. 

"  But  in  two  respects  the  cases  are  differ- 
ent. The  first  is,  that  if  there  is  any  inter- 
nal difficulty — that  is,  any  malformation  or 
imperfection  in  the  brain,  there  is  no  rem- 
edy. We  can't  send  the  mind  of  the  boy 

* 
back  to  the  machine-shop  to  have  the  piston 


104  HUBERT. 

packed,  or  the  deficiency,  whatever  it  may 
be,  supplied.  And  the  second  is,  that  if  we 
find  that  the  trouble  with  the  boy  is  that  he 
is  off  the  track,  we  cannot  put  him  on  it 
again  by  jack-screws  and  force." 

Juno  smiled,  but  did  not  speak. 

Juno  and  Georgie  were  both  very  much 
interested  in  this  story  about  the  locomo- 
tives, but  they  were  interested  in  different 
ways,  and  it  led  to  very  different  trains  of 
reflection  in  their  minds  when  Georgie's 
father  went  away.  Georgie  began  to  con- 
sider how  he  should  like  to  be  an  engineer, 
if  he  were  a  man,  and  have  it  for  his  business 
to  find  out  what  was  the  matter  with  loco- 
motives when  they  would  not  go,  and  screw 
them  up  with  jack-screws  when  the  wheels 
were  off  the  track.  Juno,  on  the  other  hand, 

thought  of  Hubert,  and  wondered  whether 

* 
the  reason  why  he  was  such  a  poor  scholar 


WHAT  ARE   FLANGES?  IO5 

in  arithmetic  might  not  be  simply  that  he 
was  off  the  track,  and  that  the  people  who 
had  had  charge  of  him  did  not  know  how 
to  get  him  on  again. 

"  I  mean  to  try  to  find  out  how  it  is,"  she 
said  to  herself.  "  How  glad  I  should  be  if 
I  could  get  him  on  the  track  myself,  and 
then  see  him  running  along  merrily,  as  that 
locomotive  did  !" 

Both  were  silent  while  these  thoughts 
were  passing  through  their  minds.  At 
length  Georgie  interrupted  the  silence  by 
asking, 

"  What  are  flanges,  Juno  ?" 

"  I'm  sure  I  don't  know,"  said  Juno.  "  I 
never  heard  of  them  before." 


CHAPTER   IX. 
The  Loft. 

"T  TUBERT  received  so  little  encourage- 
ment or  help,  that  is  of  the  right  kind, 
while  he  was  at  his  aunt's,  that  he  soon  took 
every  occasion  that  he  could  to  go  away 
from  the  house,  and  the  place  where  he 
liked  best  to  go  was  his  cousin  Georgie's. 
Georgie  had  a  certain  time  for  studying 
every  day,  under  Juno's  charge  ;  and  Hu- 
bert, hating  as  he  did,  everything  connected 
with  school,  carefully  avoided  going  to  the 
house  at  those  times,  for  fear  that  he  might 
in  some  way  be  drawn  in  to  take  some  share 
in  the  studies. 
(10$) 


TALK  ABOUT  TOOLS.  IO/ 

He  had  not  begun  to  go  to  school  yet,  since 
ho  came  to  his  aunt's.  His  aunt  had  spoken 
to  him  two  or  three  times  on  the  subject, 
but  he  seemed  very  unwilling  to  go  to  any 
school,  and  she  was,  moreover,  not  entirely 
decided  what  course  it  would  be  best  for 
her  to  take  in  respect  to  his  education.  So 

• 

she  postponed  the  decision  from  day  to  day, 
intending  in  the  meantime  to  give  him  some 
lessons  every  day  herself — when  she  had 
time. 

But  she  seldom  had  any  time  to  spare, 
and  so  Hubert  escaped  study  almost  alto- 
gether. 

While  he  was  at  Georgie's  one  day,  and 
the  two  boys  had  been  talking  a  little  while 
about  tools — 

"  I  wish  I  had  a  shop,"  said  Georgie. 

"  We  could  make  a  shop,"  said  Hubert, 
"  if  we  could  only  find  a  place  to  make  it  in." 


108  HUBERT. 

"  How  big  a  place  ?"  asked  Georgie. 

"  We  don't  need  a  very  big  place,"  said 
Hubert.  "We  only  want  a  window,  and 
room  enough  before  it  for  a  bench." 

"  Let's  look  around  in  the  sheds  and 
barns,"  said  Georgie,  "  and  see  if  we  can't 
find  a  place." 

So  they  looked  about  the  buildings,  but 
could  not  find  any  place  that  seemed  to  be 
suitable  that  was  not  already  occupied. 

"  We'll  go  and  ask  Juno,"  said  Georgie. 
"  She  can  find  a  place  for  us,  I'm  sure." 

"  Oh,  no  !"  replied  Hubert.  "  A  girl  would 
not  know  anything  about  a  place  for  a  shop." 

"  We  will  ask  her  at  any  rate,"  said  Geor- 
gie. "  Juno  knows  almost  everything." 

So  the  boys  went  across  the  yard  to  the 
door  which  led  into  the  part  of  the  house 
where  Juno  was  likely  to  be  found.  Hu- 
bert remained  outside  upon  the  piazza  while 


ABOUT  A   WORKSHOP.  109 

Georgie  went  in.     Very  soon  he  returned, 
bringing  Juno  with  him. 

Juno  went  with  the  boys  through  the 
back  rooms  and  sheds,  looking  everywhere 
for  a  window  to  spare  where  a  bench  might 
be  placed,  but  none  was  to  be  found.  The 
space  near  every  window  seemed  to  be  oc- 
cupied, and  all  in  such  a  way,  that  it  was 
evident  they  could  not  be  spared  for  any 
purposes  of  play. 

At  last  Juno  stopped  at  a  particular  part 
of  one  of  the  sheds,  and  began  to  look  up 
toward  the  roof.  The  roof  was  pretty  high, 
and  sloped  down  each  way  from  the  center 
to  the  sides. 

"  There's  room  enough  up  there,"  said 
she,  "  if  we  could  only  get  at  it." 

"  We  can  get  at  it,"  said  Georgie,  eagerly. 
"  We  can  get  a  ladder." 

"  You  would  have  to  have  a  floor  laid," 
10 


110  HUBERT. 

said  Juno,  "  and  stairs  to  go  up,  and  a  win- 
dow made.  With  those  things  done,  you 
could  have  a  nice  loft  there,  that  would 
make  you  a  very  good  shop." 

"  We  could  do  all  those  things  ourselves, 
Hubert,"  said  Georgie,  looking  quite  elated, 
"  could  n't  we  ?" 

Georgie  said,  "  ourselves,"  but  he  meant 
principally  Hubert,  with  such  little  aid,  per- 
haps, as  he  could  render. 

Hubert  did  not  seem  quite  so  sanguine. 
He  said  that  they  could  not  make  the  win- 
dow, nor  the  stairs,  nor  could  the}7  put  in 
the  beams  for  the  floor.  If  the  beams  were 
put  in  they  could  lay  the  floor-boards,  he 
thought,  and  they  could  make  the  bench. 

Juno  found  a  place  where  a  flight  of  stairs 
could  be  made,  and  Georgie  said  imme- 
diately, that  he  meant  to  ask  his  father  that 
very  day  to  come  and  see  the  place,  and 


THE   WORKSHOP   IN   PREPARATION.      Ill 

have  the  loft  made  for  him.  "  All  'except 
the  floor,"  said  he.  "  We  can  do  that  if  he 
will  have  the  beams  put  in." 

The  result  of  all  this  was,  that  when  Geor- 
gie's  father  came  to  see  the  place,  and  learn 
about  the  plan  which  Juno  had  formed,  he 
at  once  approved  of  it.  He  thought  that 
even  if  Georgie  should  not  use  it  long  for  a 
shop,  such  a  little  room  would  be  useful  in 
other  ways.  So  he  sent  for  a  carpenter  and 
had  the  alterations  made  at  once.  The  stairs 
were  made,  rough  it  is  true,  but  strong  and 
sufficient  for  the  purpose.  The  joists,  too, 
were  framed  in,  to  support  the  floor,  and  a 
nice  window,  with  an  upper  and  tower  sash, 
was  put  in  at  the  end. 

The  boys  watched  the  carpenter  with 
great  interest,  while  he  was  doing  this  work, 
and  learned  all  they  could.  They  asked  him 
some  questions  about  laying  the  floor.  He 


112  HUBERT. 

told  them  that  they  had  better  find  some 
old  boards  lying  about  to  put  on  the  joists 
at  first,  for  them  to  stand  upon  while  put- 
ting down  the  permanent  floor.  He  asked 
them  whether  they  were  going  to  have  a 
single  floor  or  a  double  floor. 

"  A  single  floor  will  be  best,  Hubert,"  said 
Georgie.  "  We  can  make  it  quicker." 

"  A  single  floor  will  do,  in  such  a  place," 
said  the  carpenter,  "but  a  double  floor  will 
be  better  for  two  reasons.  In  the  first  place, 
it  will  be  stiffer,  and  then  in  the  second 
place,  with  a  single  floor,  when  you  sweep 
it,  the  dust  will  go  down  through  the  cracks, 
and  fall  upon  whatever  is  below.  But  if 
you  have  a  double  floor,  you  take  care  to 
lay  the  boards  so  that  the  cracks  in  the 
upper  layer  do  not  come  over  any  of  the 
cracks  in  the  lower,  and  so  the  dust  cannot 
get  through." 


THE   FLOORING.  113 

It  had  been  agreed  between  the  boys  and 
Juno,  that  if  they  undertook  to  make  the 
floor  for  their  shop,  they  were  not  only  to 
do  the  work,  but  to  make  all  the  calculations 
themselves.  Hubert  was  at  first  rather  un- 
willing to  undertake  any  calculation,  for  he 
had  an  idea  that  calculation  was  arithmetic, 
and  he  hated  arithmetic.  He,  however,  con- 
sented, upon  Juno's  promising  to  help  him 
so  far  as  should  be  necessary. 

So  when  the  time  came  for  them  to  begin 
their  work — which  was  not  until  more  than 
a  week  after  the  plan  had  first  been  formed 
— Juno  told  them  that  the  first  thing  was 
for  them  to  calculate  how  many  boards  they 
would  want  for  the  flooring.  "  That,"  said 
she,  "is  Mensuration  of  Superficies." 

"  Oh,  dear  me  !"  said  Hubert,  in  a  des- 
pairing tone.  "  That's  in  the  arithmetic — 
away  over  beyond  the  middle, — I  can't  do 
10* 


114  HUBERT. 

that.  I  have  not  got  anywhere  near  so  far 
as  that." 

"  Ah !"  said  Juno,  laughing.  "  I  frightened 
you  with  a  hard  word.  The  thing  itself  is 
rather  hard,  I  admit,  but  you  can  do  it.  You 
have  not  got  to  go  to  any  arithmetic  for  it. 
It  is  all  in  your  head.  You  have  only  to 
bring  it  out." 

"  I'm  sure  there's  nothing  about  that  in 
my  head,"  said  Hubert. 

"  We'll  see,"  said  Juno.  "  You  know  what 
a  square  foot  is,  don't  you  ?" 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  Hubert,  "  I  know  that." 

"  And  they  sell  boards  by  square  feet," 
continued  Juno.  "  So  that  before  you  buy 
your  boards  for  a  floor,  you  wish  to  know 
how  many  square  feet  it  will  take  to  cover 
it." 

Juno  then  went  on  to  explain  that  if  a 
board  was  one  foot  wide,  there  would  be  as 


A   CALCULATION.  1 15 

many  square  feet  in  it  as  it  was  long,  for 
every  foot  in  length,  with  a  foot  in  width 
would  make  a  square  foot ;  and  that  if  a 
floor  was  just  as  long  as  that  board  and 
twenty  feet  wide,  it  would  take  twenty  such 
boards  to  cover  it ;  that  is  to  say,  there 
would  be  twenty  times  as  many  square  feet 
required  as  there  were  in  the  first  board  ; 

and  so  with  any  other  number. 

t 
"  Thus  you  see,"  said  Juno,  "  that  in  order 

to  calculate  how  many  feet  of  boards  you 
need,  all  you  have  to  do  js  to  measure  the 
length  and  the  breadth  of  the  floor,  and  then 
multiply  the  numbers  together." 

"  That's  easy  enough,"  said  Hubert. 
"  We'll  go  and  do  it  now." 

So  the  boys  went  and  made  the  measure- 
ments, and  when  they  came  they  wrote  the 
numbers  down  upon  a  slate,  and  then  multi- 
plied them  together.  To  make  the  calcula- 


Il6  HUBERT. 

tion  more  simple,  they  reckoned  parts  of 
feet  as  whole  feet,  by  Juno's  recommenda- 
tion. They  then  doubled  the  number  of 
feet  which  they  thus  obtained,  as  it  had 
been  decided  to  make  a  double  floor ;  and 
the  calculation  was  completed. 

"  Only,"  said  Hubert,  "  we  must  buy 
boards  of  the  right  length  to  cut  to  advan- 
tage. If  we  can  find  any  just  the  right 
length  to  go  one  way,  that  will  be  the  best ; 
or  twice  the  length,  and  then  we  can  saw 
them  in  two,  and  that  will  do  very  well. 
We  don't  want  any  more  joints  than  we  can 
help  in  our  floor." 

"  We  can  have  some  joints,  I  suppose," 
said  Georgie. 

"  Certainly,"  said  Hubert,  "  we  can  have 
some  joints  if  it  is  necessary.  And  we  must 
pick  out  all  our  poorest  boards  for  the  un- 
der floor." 


THE   BEST   ON   THE   TOP. 


117 


"  Yes,"  said  Georgie,  "  so  as  to  have  the 
best  ones  on  the  top,  where  they  come  in 
sight." 


CHAPTER   X. 
Going  up  a  Mountain. 

A  LTHOUGH,  as  we  have  seen,  Hubert 
was  very  ingenious  and  very  well 
informed  about  mechanics,  he  was  a  very 
poor  scholar  in  respect  to  all  school  studies. 
The  reason  why  he  was  so  poor  a  scholar 
was  that  he  had  become  discouraged. 

How  he  came  to  be  discouraged  was  thus. 
But  first  I  must  tell  the  story  of  the  two 
children  going  up  a  high  mountain.  One 
was  a  small  boy  named  Johnny,  and  the 
other  a  small  girl  named  Jenny.  The  boy 
was  accompanied  by  his  brother,  whose 
name  was  Minax,  and  the  girl  by  her  sister, 

(118) 


GOING   UP  A   MOUNTAIN.  119 

whose  name  was  Lura.  The  two  children 
were  of  about  the  same  age.  They  were 
going  up  the  mountain  on  different  sides, 
though  by  equally  steep  and  difficult  paths, 
so  that  one  had  as  good  a  chance  as  the 
other,  and  they  were  going  to  see  which 
would  get  to  the  top  first.  In  conducting 
her  little  sister  up,  Lura's  policy  was  to 
draw,  but  that  of  Minax  was  to  drive. 

After  Minax  and  his  brother  had  gone  up 
the  first  steep  ascent  made  by  the  path,  they 
stopped  a  moment  to  rest,  and  while  they 
were  resting  Minax  said, 

"  We  must  not  stop  to  rest  here  long. 
We  have  not  done  much  yet.  Look  up  and 
see  how  high  the  mountain  is  above  us. 
We  have  scarcely  begun  the  hard  work  yet. 
Come,  we  must  get  on." 

So  they  went  on. 

In  the  meantime  Lura  and  her  sister  had 


120  HUBERT. 

gone  up  the  first  ascent  on  their  side  of  the 
mountain.  When  they  sat  down  to  rest, 
she  said  to  her  sister, 

"  See  !  How  high  we  have  got  already. 
We  can  look  down  upon  the  tops  of  all  the 
houses.  It  is  quite  a  steep  pitch  that  we 
have  come  up.  You  have  made  an  excel- 
lent beginning,  and  you  can  stay  here  and 
rest  as  Jong  as  you  like." 

"  I'm  rested  now,"  said  Jenny.  "  Let  us 
go  on  and  climb  up  some  more." 

Johnny  felt  somewhat  discouraged  by  his 
brother's  showing  him  how  little  they  had 
done,  and  how  much  more  remained  to  be 
done.  Still  he  went  on.  Minax  tried  to 
stimulate  his  exertions  by  saying, 

"  You  get  along  pretty  well  considering 
that  you  are  such  a  little  boy.  I  wish  you 
could  go  faster,  but  I  suppose  you  cannot 
do  any  better,  and  I  ought  not  to  expect  it. 


IN   DESPAIR.  121 

But  we've  got  a  great  way  farther  to  go,^so 
we  must  hurry  along." 

"  Oh,  dear  me  !"  said  Johnny  with  a  sigh. 
"  How  much  farther  is  it  to  the  top  ?  And 
he  sank  down  on  a  rock  by  the  wayside  in 
despair." 

Lura,  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountain, 
said  to  her  sister, 

"  We  need  not  hurry,  Jenny.  We  are 
getting  along  very  well  indeed.  Look  back 
and  see  how  high  we  are  already.  You  can 
climb  mountains  a  great  deal  better  than  I 
thought  you  could.  But  I  might  have 
known  that  you  could  climb  pretty  well, 
for  you  are  getting  to  be  quite  a  large  girl, 
compared"  with  what  you  were  two  years 
ago." 

"  I  like  to  climb,"  said  Jenny.  "  How 
high  we  are  already." 

"  Look !"  she  said,  stepping  up  upon  » 
ii 


122  HUBERT. 

rock  by  the  wayside  in  order  to  see  better 
down  into  the  valley.  "  Oh,  how  high  !" 

Both  parties  went  on  a  little  farther.  The 
boy  seemed  to  have  no  heart  for  the  work, 
and  dragged  himself  slowly  up  the  path, 
stopping  every  minute  to  rest  and  breathe, 
and  to  look  up  at  the  steep  ascent  before 
him. 

"  Come,  hurry  along,"  said  Minax.  "  We 
have  not  got  more  than  three-quarters  of 
the  way  up  yet,  and  think  how  ashamed  you 
would  be  if  Jenny  should  get  there  before 
you.  And  if  you  don't  go  faster  she  will." 

"  I  don't  care,"  -said  Johnny.  "  And  I 
don't  care  if  I  never  get  there  at  all.  And 
he  sank  down  upon  another  stone  by  the 
wayside  in  despair." 

"  Now,  Jenny,"  said  Lura,  "  you  can  stop 
and  rest  a  little  while  if  you  please.  Y"ou 
done  so  well,  and  got  up  so  high,  we 


WORN   OUT  AND   DISCOURAGED.          123 

must  be  full  three-fourths  of  the  way  up  to 
the  top.  So  there's  no  hurry.  Even  if 
Johnny  gets  there  before  us,  it  will  be  of  no 
consequence.  He  may  as  well  have  the 
pleasure  of  beating  as  you." 

"  Yes,"  said  Jenny.  "  Only  now  that  yve 
have  got  so  high,  I  want  to  be  at  the  top." 

So  she  went  on  briskly,  Lura  following 
her,  until  before  long  they  both  reached  the 
summit.  They  waited  there  some  time,  but 
Johnny  didn't  come,  and  so  they  began  to 
descend  by  the  other  path,  expecting  to 
meet  Johnny  on  the  way,  and  nearly  at  the 
top.  Instead  of  that,  however,  they  saw 
nothing  of  him  for  a  long  time,  but  finally 
overtook  him  half  way  down  the  mountain, 
going  back,  worn  out  and  discouraged. 

I  advise  all  the  older  children  who  may 
read  this  book,  that  whenever  they  under- 
take to  lead  their  younger  brothers  or  sisters 


124 


HUBERT. 


up  a  mountain,  or  over  any  kind  of  difficult 
way,  whether  in  a  road  or  in  their  studies, 
to  act  on  Lura's  system,  and  try  to  lead  and 
.  encourage  them  along,  rather  than  frighten 
and  drive  them. 


CHAPTER   XI. 
Learning  Long  Division. 

rTIHE  reason  why  Hubert  was  such  a  poor 
scholar,  was  because  he  had  become 
discouraged.  He  had  never  gone  farther 
in  arithmetic  than  "  Long  Division,"  and  it 
seemed  to  him  that  long  division  was  some- 
thing that  he  could  never  learn. 

He  found  multiplication  very  hard.  He 
did  not  know  the  multiplication  table  well, 
and  so  he  often  made  mistakes  in  multiply- 
ing. So  his  teacher  put  him  forward  into 
short  division,  saying,  that  she  was  going  to 
put  him  into  a  new  place,  and  hoped  that 
he  would  do  better  there  than  he  had  done. 
II*  <»5) 


126  HUBERT. 

Not  long  after  this  a  new  teacher  came, 
and,  when  in  asking  the  several  scholars 
where  they  were  in  their  studies,  she  came 
to  Hubert,  he  told  her  that  he  was  in  short 
division. 

"  In  short  division !"  she  repeated  with 
an  air  of  surprise.  "  Why,  you  ought  to  be 
farther  than  that — such  a  great  boy  as  you. 
You  must  try  to  get  along  faster,  or  peopb 
will  think  you  are  a  dunce." 

So  she  opened  the  book  at  long  division, 
and  directed  him  to  begin  there. 

"  It  is  all  explained  in  the  book,  how  to 
do  the  sums,"  she  said.  "You  must  read 
the  explanations,  and  then  take  the  first  sum 
and  do  it.  When  it  is  done  bring  it  to  me, 
and  I'll  tell  you  if  it  is  right." 

So  Hubert  took  the  book  and  slate  to  his 
seat,  and  looked  at  the  place  where  the 
teacher  told  him  the  explanations  were. 


LONG   DIVISION.  I2/ 

Now,  it  is  true,  that  the  process  was  all 
fully  explained  there,  but  it  is  a  great  art  to 
understand  explanations  of  processes  from 
a  printed  book,  and  it  was  an  art  that  Hu- 
bert had  never  learned.  He  looked  at  the 
explanations,  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  he 
never  could  understand  them.  Then  he 
looked  down  below  to  see  what  the  first  ex- 
ample was.  It  was  to  divide  34,108  by  23. 
He  wrote  the  dividend  on  the  slate  and  also 
the  divisor  at  the  left  hand  of  it,  with  a 
curved  line  between,  as  he  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  do  in  short  division,  and  then  stop- 
ped. He  had  no  idea  what  to  do  next.  He 
looked  back  to  the  explanations,  but  did  not 
see  anything  there  which  seemed  to  tell  him 
what  to  do.  So  he  sat  still  and  did  nothing. 
By  and  by  the  teacher  called  him  to  her 
desk  to  show  her  his  work,  but  found  that 
he  had  not  done  anything.  She  asked  him 


128  HUBERT. 

why  he  had  not  done  the  sum.  He  said 
that  he  did  not  know  how  to  do  it. 

"  Why,  it's  very  easy,"  said  she.  "  The 
first  thing  is  to  see  how  many  times  23  will 
go  in  34.  It  will  go  once.  So  write  down 
the  i." 

Hubert  wrote  the  figure  i  on  his  slate 
down  below  the  sum. 

"  No,  not  there,"  said  the  teacher,  "  I 
should  think  you  would  know  better  than 
that." 

Hubert  had  written  it  under  the  sum,  be- 
cause the  teacher  had  directed  him  to  write 
it  down,  and  he  thought  that  that  was  down. 

"  You  must  write  it  in  the  quotient,"  she 
said,  speaking  a  little  impatiently. 

Hubert  did  not  know  where  the  quotient 
was,  and  so  he  stood  looking  at  a  vacant 
spot  in  the  air,  half-way  between  his  eyes 
and  the  slate — utterly  bewildered. 


VERY   EASY  TO   DO.  129 

"  Here  !"  said  the  teacher,  "  give  me  the 
pencil." 

So  she  took  the  pencil  out  of  Hubert's 
hand,  and  making  a  little  curved  line  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  dividend,  with  its  concave 
face  toward  the  right,  she  wrote  the  I  be- 
yond it. 

"  There,"  said  she,  "  now  take  your  seat 
and  multiply.  After  you  have  multiplied, 
you  know  you  subtract,  and  then  you  bring 
down  the  next  figure,  and  then  divide  again, 
and  so  on.  It  is  very  easy  to  do,  if  you  will 
only  exercise  your  wits  a  little." 

So  Hubert  went  back  to  his  seat,  but  he 
had  no  idea  at  all  what  he  was  to  do.  The 
teacher  had  told  him  that  he  was  to  multi- 
ply something  or  other,  and  also  that  he 
was  to  exercise  his  wits.  So  he  sat  for  a 
while  in  his  seat,  sometimes  looking  vacantly 
at  his  slate, — then  at  the  explanations  in  the 


130  HUBERT. 

book, — and  then  for  awhile  his  attention  was 
turned  to  watching  a  fly  that  was  walking 
along  over  his  slate,  trying  to  find  some- 
thing to  eat  there.  Hubert  wondered  wheth- 
er the  fly  could  eat  slate-pencil  marks,  and 
waited  to  see  whether,  when  he  reached 
the  figure  I  which  the  teacher  had  made  in 
the  quotient,  as  she  had  called  it,  he  would 
eat  it.  The  idea  of  a  fly  eating  a  quotient 
for  dinner,  brought  a  smile  to  his  face.  He 
suppressed  the  smile  as  soon  as  he  could, 
but  not  before  the  teacher  saw  him,  and  she 
at  once  put  down  a  black  mark  against  his 
name,  for  playing  in  study  hours. 

When  the  arithmetic  hour  had  expired, 
the  teacher  gave  all  the  scholars  something 
else  to  do,  but  at  the  close  of  the  school  she 
made  a  second  black  mark  against  Hubert's 
name,  for  failure  in  arithmetic. 

Hubert  went  on  in  pretty  much  such  a 


ABOUT  HUBERT'S  STUDIES.         131 

way  as  this,  in  trying  to  learn  division,  until 
at  length  his  mother  died,  and  soon  after- 
ward he  came  to  live  with  his  aunt. 

His  aunt,  after  he  had  been  at  her  house 
some  days,  began  to  consider  what  it  would 
be  best  to  do  in  respect  to  his  studies.  One 
thing  she  thought  which  might  be  done 
was,  to  find  some  good  school  to  send  him 
to.  Another  plan  was  to  find  a  suitable  per- 
son to  come  and  teach  him  at  home.  Mrs. 
Wood  could  not  decide  at  once  what  would 
be  the  best  plan,  and  so  she  said  to  herself 
that  she  would  think  about  it,  and  in  the 
meanwhile  she  would  endeavor  to  find  time 
to  attend  to  his  lessons  a  little  herself. 

She  accordingly  took  occasion  one  day  to 
question  Hubert  a  little  about  his  studies. 
Among  other  things,  she  asked  him  how 
far  he  had  gone  in  arithmetic. 

"  As  far  as  long  division." 


132  HUBERT. 

"  Have  n't  you  got  farther  than  that  ?"  she 
asked. 

Hubert  shook  his  head. 

His  aunt  looked  surprised.  "  I  suppose 
at.any  rate  you  have  got  through  long  divis- 
ion," said  she,  "  so  that  you  can  do  all  the 
sums  in  that  rule  ?" 

Hubert  looked  a  little  surprised,  and  said, 
"  That  he  had  only  begun  it." 

His  aunt  paused  a  moment,  with  a  some- 
what dissatisfied  and  disappointed  expres- 
sion of  countenance,  and  then  said, — 

"  That  is  rather  discouraging,  Hubert,  I 
must  say.  I  had  heard  that  you  were  very 
backward  in  your  studies,  but  I  had  hoped 
that  you  were  farther  advanced  than  that. 
But  still  we  must  make  the  best  of  it.  I  sup- 
pose. I  will  help  you  all  I  can.  Long  di- 
vision is  very  easy,  and  if  you  are  smart, 
you  can  learn  it  very  soon." 


GREATER  EFFORTS   NEEDED.  133 

"  I  thought  it  was  very  hard,"  said  Hu- 
bert. 

"  Oh,  no,"  said  Mrs.  Wood, "  I  have  known 
boys  a  great  deal  younger  than  you,  that 
could  do  all  the  sums  in  that  rule  very  well. 
You  mustn't  call  long  division  hard.  If 
you  do,  I  do  not  know  what  you'll  say  to 
what  you'll  come  to  by  and  by.  However, 
we  will  see.  I  must  do  something  before 
long  about  your  studies,  to  help  you  make 
up  for  lost  time.  You  see  you  won't  like, 
when  you  go  to  school  again,  to  have  every- 
body laugh  at  you,  for  being  so  backward, 
and  thinking  that  you  are  a  dunce." 

Mrs.  Wood  talked  in  this  way  to  Hubert, 
thinking  that  by  making  him  ashamed  of  his 
ignorance,  she  should  stimulate  him  to  make 
greater  efforts  to  acquire  knowledge.  But 
the  effect  of  what  she  said  was  unfortunately 
only  to  discourage  him.  He  felt  as  if  there 
12 


134  HUBERT. 

was  an  immense  wall  of  difficulty  before  him 
on  the  road  of  arithmetic, — one  which  he 
did  not  see  how  it  was  possible  for  him  to 
surmount.  He  hated  arithmetic  more  than 
ever. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

Junds  School. 

~T~UNO,  as  has  already  been  said,  had 
charge  of  Georgie's  studies.  The  idea 
of  Georgie's  mother  was,  that  all  that  it  was 
wise  to  attempt  to  teach  boys,  until  they 
were  about  ten  years  of  age,  was  reading, 
writing,  language,  and  readiness,  skill  and 
correctness  in  common  computations.  Juno 
was  abundantly  qualified  to  teach  all  these. 
Reading  she  taught  him  by  hearing  him 
read  to  her  from  some  entertaining  book, 
such  as  was  adapted  to  interest  and  amuse 
him  ;  writing,  by  having  him  write  every 
day  in  a  kind  of  journal  which  he  kept,  and 

035) 


136  HUBERT. 

in  which  he  wrote  a  great  variety  of  things  ; 
language,  by  reading  to  him  herself  for  half 
an  hour  every  day,  in  some  book  a  little  in 
advance  of  him,  in  respect  to  the  subject 
and  language,  but  which  was  calculated  to 
interest  him  as  she  explained  it ;  and,  finally, 
computation,  by  having  him  spend  half  an 
hour  each  day  in  solving  questions  in  mental 
arithmetic,  and  in  adding  columns  of  figures. 

Thus  her  school  was  very  simple  in  its 
principles,  and  in  the  branches  which  were 
of  fundamental  importance. 

Now,  when  Juno  became  acquainted  with 
Hubert,  she  began  soon  to  feel  a  strong  de- 
sire to  have  him  come  into  her  school,  as  a 
fellow  pupil  for  his  cousin  George.  She 
did  not  know,  however,  whether  Georgie's 
mother  would  like  such  a  plan.  After  some 
hesitation  she  at  length  concluded  to  ask  her. 

So  she  took  an  opportunity  one  day  to 


JUNO'S   NEW   SCHOLAR.  137 

explain  the  case  to  her,  and  to  ask  her 
whether  there  would  be  any  objection  to 
her  taking  him  in  to  study  with  Georgie 
sometimes. 

"  I'm  told  he  is  a  very  dull  scholar,"  said 
Georgie's  mother,  "and  so  I  should  not 
think  you  would  like  to  have  the  trouble  of 
him." 

"  That  is  the  very  reason  why  I  wish  to 
have  him  come,"  said  Juno.  "  He  says  he 
hates  arithmetic,  and  I  would  like  to  try  an 
experiment  with  him,  to  see  if  I  cannot 
make  him  like  it." 

The  lady  smiled,  and  said  she  had  no 
objection  to  Juno's  trying  the  experiment, 
and  added, 

"  I  think  you  will  succeed  if  any  body 
can.  But  do  not  make  any  permanent  ar- 
rangement. Invite  him  only  for  a  few  days, 
so  that  we  may  discontinue  the  plan  at  any 
12* 


138  HUBERT. 

time  without  occasioning  any  disappoint- 
ment." 

Juno  promised  to  do  so,  and  then  went 
away. 

A  few  days  after  this  Juno  asked  Hubert 
how  he  would  like  to  come  the  next  morning 
and  be  an  honorary  member  of  her  school. 
Hubert  said  he  did  not  know  what  an  honor- 
ary member  was. 

"  It  is  one  who  comes  when  he  likes  and 
goes  when  he  likes,"  said  Juno,  "  and  has 
nothing  to  do  except  what  he  chooses." 

"  I  should  like  that  very  well,"  said  Hu- 
bert. 

"  An  honorary  member  does  pretty  much 
what  he  likes,"  said  Juno,  "  only  he  must 
not  do  anything  to  disturb  the  others.  If 
you  come  you  can  go  away  when  you  please ; 
but  as  long  as  you  stay,  you  mustn't  do  any- 
thing to  interrupt  Georgie  at  his  work." 


GEORGIE'S  JOURNAL.  139 

"  No,"  said  Hubert,  "  I  won't  interrupt 
him." 

"  The  best  time  to  come,"  said  Juno,  "  will 
be  at  ten,  and  then  you  can  see  him  at  work 
on  his  journal." 

Now,  Juno  called  Georgie's  book  his  jour- 
nal, because  he  wrote  in  it  every  day ;  but 
it  was  not  by  any  means  exclusively  an  ac- 
count of  his  own  daily  doings.  It  contained 
a  great  variety  of  different  articles,  anec- 
dotes, poems,  riddles,  conundrums,  and  any- 
thing else  that  he  found  which  he  thought 
would  make  his  journal  entertaining.  He 
also  often  put  in  pictures  when  he  found  any 
that  he  thought  would  serve  as  an  embel- 
lishment to  the  pages ;  only  whenever  a  pic- 
ture was  put  in,  Georgie  was  accustomed 
to  write  some  account  of  it  or  description 
of  it,  to  go  in  too.  These  accounts  or  de- 
scriptions he  wrote  first  on  another  piece  of 


140  HUBERT. 

paper,  and  then,  when  Juno  had  corrected 
them,  he  copied  them  under  the  picture  in 
his  book. 

In  a  word,  Georgie  could  put  anything 
he  pleased  into  his  journal,  only  he  was  re- 
quired to  write  every  word  in  it  in  a  very 
plain,  round  hand,  as  well  as  he  could,  form- 
ing every  letter  carefully,  so  that  his  book 
could  afterward  be  read  as  easily  by  any 
other  person  as  if  it  had  been  printed. 

In  accordance  with  the  invitation  which 
Juno  had  given  him,  Hubert  came  the  next 
day  as  an  honorary  member  of  the  school. 
He  arrived  just  as  Georgie  was  commencing 
his  work  upon  his  journal  for  that  day,  and 
he  stood  by  his  desk  while  he  was  at  work, 
watching  his  operations  with  great  interest. 
Georgie  had  a  box  upon  his  desk  where  he 
kept  the  scraps  which  he  had  cut  out  from 
newspapers,  and  the  pictures  which  he  had 


HUBERT   WANTS   A   JOURNAL.  141 

selected.  These  were  the  materials  from 
which  he  was  accustomed  to  choose  each 
day  what  he  should  put  in.  After  watching 
Georgie  at  his  work  for  some  time,  Hubert 
amused  himself  for  the  next  half  hour  in 
reading  these  papers  and  in  looking  at  the 
pictures.  He  became  so  much  interested 
in  the  idea  of  keeping  such  a  journal,  that 
he  almost  wished  that  he  had  one  himself. 

Things  went  on  in  this  way  for  several 
days.  Hubert  came  during  the  journal 
hour  and  looked  over  Georgie  at  his  work, 
amusing  himself  by  sometimes  seeing  Geor- 
gie write,  and  sometimes  by  reading  the  col- 
lection of  stories,  riddles,  and  other  things 
which  were  contained  in  the  box. 

At  length,  one  day  he  told  Juno  that  he 
would  like  keep  a  journal,  and  asked  her 
whether  she  could  give  him  a  book  and  let 
him  begin. 


142  HUBERT. 

Juno   shook  her   head   gently,  and   then 

• 

said, 

"  Ah  !  you're  only  an  honorary  member 
of  my  school  ?" 

"  What  kind  of  a  member  is  it,"  asked 
Hubert,  "  that  is  not  an  honorary  member  ?" 

"  An  active  member,"  said  Juno. 

"  And  could  not  I  be  an  active  member  ?" 
asked  Hubert. 

"  You  would  not  like  it  I'm  afraid,"  said 
Juno.  "  For  then  you  would  have  to  come 
under  the  rules." 

"  What  rules  ?"  asked  Hubert. 

"  I  should  say  the  rule,"  said  Juno,  "  for 
there  is  but  one  rule." 

"  What  is  that  ?"  asked  Hubert. 

"  To  do  just  what  I  say  without  any  ob- 
jections. Whatever  I  should  give  you  to 
do,  you  would  have  to  do  without  showing 
any  unwillingness  at  all." 


LONG   DIVISION   AGAIN.  143 

"And  what  should  you  give  me  to  do 
first?"  asked  Hubert. 

"  Well,  I  should  very  likely  give  you  the 
hardest  thing  I  could  think  of,"  said  Juno ; 
"  that  is,  provided  I  thought  you  could  do 
it.  I  think  I  should  begin,  perhaps,  with 
long  division." 

"  Oh,  horrid  !"  said  Hubert. 

Juno  smiled,  but  made  no  reply. 

"  I  can't  understand  long  division,"  said 
Hubert.  "  I  have  tried  a  great  many  times 
and  it's  no  use." 

"  I  don't  wonder  you  say  so,"  replied  Juno. 
"  There's  nothing  harder  in  all  the  arith- 
metic than  long  division." 

"  Long  division  is  hard  enough,"  said  Hu- 
bert, "  but  I  thought  there  were  a  great 
many  things  that  were  harder  on  beyond." 

"  No,"  said  Juno,  "  1  don't  think  there  is 
anything  harder ;  that  is,  anything  I  mean 


144  HUBERT. 

that  is  harder  for  the  boy  when  he  comes  to 
it,  than  long  division  is  when  he  comes  to 
fthat." 

I  have  no  doubt  that  Juno  was  right  in 
this.  Indeed,  I  should  not  be  at  all  sur- 
prised if  any  great  astronomer  were  to  say 
that  there  was  nothing  in  the  whole  course 
of  his  mathematical  studies  in  algebra,  in 
analytical  geometry,  or  in  the  integral  and 
differential  calculus,  that  was  more  difficult 
for  him,  when  he  arrived  at  it,  than  long 
division  was  for  him  when  he  came  to  that, 
in  his  studies  at  school  when  he  was  a  boy. 

"  I  tell  you  plainly,"  said  Juno,  "  that  it  is 
very  hard.  It  is  a  great  thing  for  a  boy  to 
learn  it.  But  I  believe  you  can  learn  it ; 
and  if  you  become  an  active  member  of  my 
school,  that  would  be  the  first  thing  you 
would  have  to  begin  upon.  And  if  you 
think  from  what  you  know  of  me,  that  I 


HUBERT  AT   SCHOOL.  145 

should  require  anything  of  you  that  would 
distress  or  trouble  you,  or  give  you  pain, 
then  you  had  better  not  be  an  active  mem- 
ber of  my  school,  but  be  contented  to  be  an 
honorary  member." 

"  She  won't,  Hubert,  you  may  depend," 
said  Georgie. 

"  No,"  said  Hubert,  "  I'm  sure  she  won't, 
and  I'll  come." 

So  he  came  the  next  day,  bringing  his 
slate  and  pencil,  and  also  his  arithmetic  with 
him.  Juno  said  he  would  not  need  the  book 
at  present. 

When  the  time  for  arithmetic  arrived, 
Juno  said  to  Hubert  that  she  should  wish 
to  have  Georgie  help  her  about  it. 

"  I  suppose,"  she  added,  addressing  Hu- 
bert, "  that  you  will  have  no  objection  to 
having  Georgie  help  me." 

"  Oh,  no,  indeed  !"  said  Hubert. 
13 


146  HUBERT. 

"  You  see,"  added  Juno,  "  you  have  helped 
him  so  much  about  his  shop  and  tools  and 
fishing-lines,  that  he  ought  to  be  willing  to 
help  you  about  the  arithmetic." 

"  I  shall  like  to  have  him  help  me  very 
much,"  said  Hubert,  "  and  I'll  pay  him  in 
helping  him  about  his  shop." 


CHAPTER   XIII. 
About   Tools. 

HTN  the  meantime  the  boys  in  their  play 
hours  were  getting  along  very  well  with 
their  shop.  They  had  laid  a  double  floor, 
putting  the  poorest  boards  below,  and  then 
covering  the  cracks  by  a  second  layer  of 
better  boards.  These  boards  were  rough, 
inasmuch  as  planed  boards  were  not  neces- 
sary for  such  a  floor. 

"  Rough  boards  will  do  just  as  well,"  said 
Hubert,  "for  a  shop  floor." 

"  But  planed  boards  would  be  better," 
said  Georgie. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hubert,  "  perhaps  so,  but  it 

(H7) 


148  HUBERT. 

will  cost  something  to  get  them  planed  at 
the  mill,  and  we  had  better  save  our  money 
to  buy  tools.  Besides  it  is  too  hard  work. 
Planing  looks  very  easy,  but  it  is  just  about 
the  hardest  work  for  boys  that  they  can 
have.  A  boy  can  saw  and  drive  nails  and 
bore  holes,  but  it  takes  a  man  to  plane." 

So  they  had  decided  to  make  the  floor  of 
unplaned  boards.  This  was,  in  fact,  in  bet- 
ter keeping  with  the  walls  and  roof  of  their 
shop,  which  were  not  furnished  at  all.  The 
boys,  however,  liked  the  place  all  the  better 
for  this,  as  it  made  it  look  more  like  a  real 
carpenter's  shop.  A  room  nicely  finished, 
and  papered  and  painted,  would  not  have 
been  appropriate  at  all. 

It  is  an  excellent  thing  for  boys  to  have 
some  place  for  a  shop,  provided  their  fathers 
don't  give  them  money  to  buy  tools  too  fast. 
The  main  difficulty  which  boys  have  to  sur- 


SKILL  IN   USING  TOOLS.  149 

mount  in  doing  carpenter  work  is,  not  to 
obtain  tools,  but  to  acquire  the  skill  to  use 
them.  Many  a  boy  imagines  that  it  would 
be  a  very  fine  thing  to  be  able  to  make 
boxes  and  wagons  and  mills  and  other  such 
things  ;  and  that  all  he  wants  to  enable  him 
to  do  it,  is  a  bench  and  a  good  supply  of 
tools.  So  his  father  buys  him  a  tool-chest 
full  of  tools,  and  employs  a  carpenter  to 
make  him  a  bench.  When  these  things  are 
ready  the  boy  is  greatly  delighted,  and  goes 
to  work ;  and  he  almost  always  begins  with 
some  very  difficult  and  complicated  under- 
taking. With  all  those  tools  he  thinks  he 
shall  be  able  to  make  anything  he  pleases, 
and  is  above  attempting  anything  simple. 
He  forgets  that  it  is  not  the  tools  which  do 
the  work,  but  the  man,  and  that  the  means  by 
which  he  does  it  are  the  knowledge,  experience 
and  skill  with  which  he  uses  the  tools. 
13* 


ISO  HUBERT. 

So  he  begins  very  zealously  to  make,  per- 
haps, a  martin-house,  in  the  form  of  a  church, 
with  a  porch  supported  by  columns  in  front, 
and  a  cupola,  surmounted  by  a  spire  above. 
And  with  all  his  other  follies,  he  often  sets 
his  heart  on  finishing  it  that  same  day.  But 
he  soon  finds  that  it  is  one  thing  to  have 
tools,  and  quite  another  to  be  able  to  work 
them  successfully.  His  saw  plagues  him  by 
running  off  to  one  side  of  the  line,  or  by 
rubbing  hard,  and  finally  getting  caught  in 
the  cleft.  In  attempting  to  shape  a  board 
for  the  side  of  his  martin-house,  he  measures 
the  width  and  then  lays  down  a  straight 
edge  to  mark  the  line  by,  with  a  carpenter's 
pencil ;  but  as  he  holds  down  the  straight 
edge  only  at  one  end,  the  pressure  of  the 
pencil  against  it,  as  he  moves  it  along,  pushes 
the  other  end  out  of  place,  and  his  pencil 
mark  runs  all  away.  Finally,  after  several 


DIFFICULTIES.  151 

attempts,  he  gets  a  line  straight,  though  the 
right  marking  is  so  confused  by  the  many 
wrong  ones,  that  he  can  hardly  see  which 
he  is  to  go  by.  When  he  attempts  to  hew 
down  to  this  line,  the  grain  of  the  wood 
causes  the  cleavage  made  by  the  hatchet  to 
run  in,  beyond  the  line,  and  makes  his  board 
too  narrow.  When  he  attempts  to  plane, 
he  sets  the  plane-iron  very  rank,  so  as  to 
take  off  a  good  thick  shaving  and  enable 
him  to  get  along  faster  with  his  work,  as  he 
is  in  a  great  hurry  to  get  it  done.  But  he 
cannot  force  the  plane  along  to  the  end  of 
the  board.  It  gets  stopped  on  the  way,  by 
the  thickness  of  the  cut ;  or,  if  he  succeeds 
in  forcing  it  through  a  few  times,  he  soon 
gets  the  throat  choked  up  with  shavings. 
He  then  attempted  to  clear  the  obstruction 
by  driving  in  a  nail  at  the  narrow  opening 
in  front  of  the  plane-iron,  and  so  notches  the 


I$2  HUBERT. 

edge,  and  spoils  it  for  future  use,  until  it  is 
ground  again.  Last  of  all,  when  he  under- 
takes to  nail  the  parts  of  his  work  together, ' 
he  is  in  too  much  of  a  hurry  to  bore  holes, 
and,  moreover,  inserts  the  points  of  his  nails 
the  wrong  way,  that  is,  with  the  long  part 
of  the  point  in  a  line  with  the  fibres,  instead 
ot  across  them,  and  so  wedges  the  fibres 
apart,  and  splits  the  wood  in  driving  them. 

In  a  word,  he  soon  gets  disgusted  with 
his  tools  and  his  shop,  and  lets  it  go  to  ruin. 
If  you  go  to  visit  it  three  months  after  the 
bench  was  made  and  the  chest  of  tools  put 
upon  it,  you  will  find  everything  in  confu- 
sion,— edges  of  tools  all  notched  and  dull, 
handles  off,  nails,  screws,  broken  gimlets 
and  brad-awls  scattered  about  the  bench 
and  floor.  The  whole  of  this  confusion 
would  be  half  covered  up  with  shavings, 
were  it  not  that  very  likely  that  the  boy 


THEY   MUST   HAVE  TOOLS.  153 

never  got  so  far,  as  to  be  able  to  make  any 
shavings. 

And  all  this  because  neither  the  boy  nor 
his  father  understood  that  it  is  of  no  use  to 
buy  tools  any  faster  than  you  learn  how  to 
use  them. 

Isaiah  had  taught  Hubert  this  lesson  pretty 
thoroughly,  and  so  he  was  in  no  hurry  to 
have  Georgie  ask  his  father  for  money  to 
buy  tools. 

"We'll  have  a  bench,"  said  he,  "for' we 
can  make  that  ourselves,  and  then  we  can 
get  the  tools  afterwards  as  we  come  to  need 
them." 

"  But  we  must  have  tools,"  said  Georgie, 
"  to  make  the  bench." 

"  Not  many,"  said  Hubert.  "  We  o'nly 
need  a  saw  and  a  hammer  and  nails.  We 
can  get  the  boards  already  planed  at  the 
mill.  So  if  uncle  will  only  let  us  buy  a  saw 


154  HUBERT. 

and  some  nails,  we  shall  be  all  right.  Then 
we  will  get  more  tools  from  time  to  time  as 
we  need  them  and  know  how  to  use  them." 

"/  think  that  it  would  be  better  to  get  all 
the  tools  at  once,"  said  Georgie,  "  and  then 
they  will  be  ready." 

"  No,"  said  Hubert,  "  they  would  only  get 
dulled  and  broken  and  spoiled.  We  had 
better  not  get  them  any  faster  than  we  are 
ready  for  them." 

"  Is  that  the  best  way  ?"  asked  Georgie. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hubert,  "  decidedly  the  best 
way.  Isaiah  told  me  all  about  it.  He  told 
me  a  story  about  it." 

"  Let's  hear  the  story,"  said  Georgie. 

"  Once  there  was  a  boy  named  Joey,"  said 
Hubert,  commencing  the  story.  "  He  asked 
his  father  to  buy  him  a  chest  of  tools.  He 
could  buy  one,  he  said,  for  ten  dollars.  But 
his  father  said  no,  he  would  not  buy  him  a 


THE   STORY.  155 

chest  of  tools,  but  he  would  buy  him  one 
tool,  or  thing  to  work  with  at  a  time,  and  as 
many  as  he  would  learn  to  use.  Joey  said 
well,  and  was  much  pleased,  and  he  asked 
his  father  when  he  would  begin  ;  and  his 
father  said  he  would  begin  the  very  next 
day. 

"  So  the  next  day  Joey's  father  took  him 
out  into  the  shed,  where  there  was  a  solid 
platform,  and  on  it  a  log,  and  a  stone  about 
as  big  as  a  man's  fist.  By  the  side  of  it  was 
a  little  board,  and  on  the  board  there  were 
a  number  of  nails.  There  were  also  a  num- 
ber of  short  and  slender  sticks,  which  had 
been  split  off  from  a  short  piece  of  board, 
lying  by  the  side  of  the  log. 

His  father  told  him  the  first  thing  he  was 
to  learn  was  to  drive  nails  through  narrow 
strips  of  wood,  without  splitting  the  wood. 
He  told  him  it  all  depended  on  his  put- 


156  HUBERT. 

ling  in  the  nails  right,  so  that  the  broad 
part  of  the  end  should  go  across  the  fibres, 
and  that  boys  almost  always  put  them  in 
wrong. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 
Juno  Learning  Something. 

TUST  here  the  boys  heard  steps  at  the 

bottom   of   the    stairs,   and   they  soon 

found  that  it  was  Juno  coming.     So  Hubert 

stopped  in  his  story ;  but  Juno  asked  him 

to  go  on,  as  she  should  like  to  hear  it  herself. 

So  he  began  where  he  left  off,  about  the 

right  mode  of  inserting  the  points  of  nails. 

This  was  all  new  to  Juno,  and  she  asked 

Hubert  to  show  her  a  nail  and  explain  the 

case  to  her.     This  Hubert  did.    He  showed 

her  that  the  nail — a  common  cut  nail — was 

somewhat  wedge-shaped  in  one  direction ; 

that  is,  the  sides  spread  a  little  from  the 

14  (157) 


158  HUBERT. 

point  to  the  head,  while  the  other  two  sides 
were  parallel  to  each  other  :  and  that  to  pre- 
vent the  nail  from  splitting  the  wood  when 
it  was  driven  into  a  narrow  piece,  the  point 
must  be  inserted  with  the  broad  part  cross- 
wise of  the  fibres,  otherwise  the  nail  would 
act  as  a  wedge,  and  split  the  wood. 

Juno  had  never  noticed  this  before,  and 
said  it  was  very  curious  ;  and  she  examined 
the  nail  attentively  for  some  time. 

Then,  at  her  request,  Hubert  went  on  with 
his  story. 

"  Joey  said  he  must  have  a  hammer  to  drive 
his  nails  with,  but  his  father  said  no,  he  must 
drive  them  with  a  stone.  He  said  that  Joey 
had  not  come  to  the  hammer  yet.  He  was 
at  work  on  nails,  and  he  could  learn  the 
right  way  of  driving  them  with  a  stone  as 
well  as  with  a  hammer,  and  that  when  he 
had  learned  to  drive  thera  right,  and  could 


JOEY   DRIVING   NAILS.  159 

bring  half  a  dozen  of  the  strips  with  four  or 
five  nails  driven  through  each,  without  any 
of  them  being  split,  that  would  be  his  first 
lesson,  and  that  then  he  would  be  entitled 
to  a  hammer." 

"And  did  he  get  his  hammer  pretty  soon  ?" 
asked  Georgie. 

"  Yes,"  said  Hubert ;  «'  the  next  day." 

"  He  forgot  several  times  in  driving  his 
nails,  and  put  them  in  wrong,  and  when  he 
did  the  wood  always  split ;  but  after  a  while 
he  learned  to  do  it  right,  and  after  that,  in 
all  the  nailings  that  he  had  to  do,  he  never 
spoiled  his  work  by  splitting  the  wood,  and 
all  because  he  learned  how  to  manage  nails 
before  he  began  upon  anything  else." 

"  Then  he  got  his  hammer,"  said  Georgie, 
"  and  what  came  next  ?  He  did  not  have 
to  stop  long  with  his  hammer.  Anybody 
knows  how  to  use  a  hammer." 


160  HUBERT. 

"  No,  indeed,"  said  Hubert.  "  It  is  a  great 
art  to  use  a  hammer  well.  Always  to  hit 
the  nail  on  the  head,  and  to  go  on  driving 
until  the  head  is  just  flush  with  the  wood 
without  indenting  the  wood  at  all,  is  a  hard 
thing,  and  requires  a  good  deal  of  practice 
and  care." 

Hubert  was  certainly  right  in  this,  for 
generally  when  a  boy  is  driving  a  nail,  you 
can  see  the  proof  of  his  wTant  of  skill  in  the 
wood  being  indented  all  around  it  b,y  marks 
of  the  head  of  the  hammer,  made  by  its 
missing  the  nail,  and  coming  down  with  all 
its  force  upon  the  surface  of  the  wood  at  the 
side  of  it  instead. 

"  Joey's  father,"  continued  Hubert,  "kept 
him  practicing  with  the  hammer  during  the 
time  that  he  wished  to  work,  for  a  week, 
before  he  could  be  sure  to  hit  the  nail  that 
he  was  driving  fair  and  square  every  time." 


STILL   DRIVING  NAILS.  l6l 

"  He  must  have  wasted  a  great  many  nails 
in  learning  to  drive  them,"  said  Georgie. 

"No,"  replied  Hubert,  "not  one.  All 
those  that  he  drove  through  the  small  sticks 
of  wood,  he  knocked  out  again  and  saved. 
And  when  he  was  ready  to  practice  with 
his  hammer,  his  father  bored  a  hole  with  an 
auger  into  a  log,  and  Joey  would  put  a  bit 
of  board  that  he  was  going  to  drive  the  nail 
into  directly  over  it.  So  the  end  of  the  nail 
would  go  down  into  this  hole  until  the  head 
was  driven  home,  and  then  he  could  very 
easily  knock  it  out  again. 

"  That  was  a  good  way,"  said  Georgie. 

"Yes,"  replied  Hubert,  "it  was  a  very 
good  way.  Joey  spoiled  some  of  the  nails 
by  hitting  them  wrong  and  bending  them ; 
but  generally  he  drove  the  same  nail  a  great 
many  times,. until  he  found  that  he  could  hit 
at  every  blow." 
14* 


1 62  HUBERT. 

"  I  should  think  he  would  get  tired  of 
driving  the  same  nail  over  and  over  again 
all  the  time,"  said  Georgie. 

"  He  would  have  got  tired,  no  doubt," 
said  Juno,  "  if  it  were  not  that  he  knew  he 
was  improving  in  what  would  be  useful  to 
him  in  making  things  afterward." 

"  Yes,"  said  Hubert,  "  and  then,  besides, 
there  was  another  boy  with  him,  and  they 
used  to  play  together  doing  it.  One  boy 
would  take  the  hammer  and  try  till  he 
missed,  and  then  the  other  boy  would  take 
take  it,  and  so  they  made  it  a  kind  of  a 
game.  At  last,  after  two  or  three  days, 
Joey  asked  his  father  to  come  out  and  see 
how  he  could  drive  nails,  and  he  drove  in 
two  or  three  without  missing  one  blow. 

"  Then  his  father  said  that  his  next  tool 
would  be  a  saw,  and  that  now  he  had  got 
so  far  in  learning  carpentry  that  he  could 


JOEY   MAKES   A   NAIL-BOX.  163 

begin  to  make  something.  The  first  thing 
to  be  made  was,  he  said,  a  nail-box  to  keep 
his  nails  in,  when  he  had  a  shop.  So  his 
father  bought  Joey  a  saw,  and  marked  some 
lines  on  a  board  for  him  to  practice  sawing 
upon  until  he  could  keep  exactly  upon  the 
line.  He  gave  him  an  old  stool  for  a  saw- 
horse,  to  lay  his  board  upon  while  he  was 
sawing  it.  When  his  father  found  that  he 
could  saw  pretty  straight,  he  took  some  thin 
boards,  not  more  than  half  an  inch  thick, 
and  marked  out  of  them  five  pieces,  one  for 
the  bottom  and  four  for  the  sides,  of  the 
right  size,  to  make  a  little  nail-box  about 
eight  inches  square  at  the  bottom  and  two 
inches  high.  Joey  sawed  these  pieces  out 
quite  true,  for  he  had  learned  to  make  his 
saw  follow  a  line  pretty  well.  When  he  had 
sawed  these  pieces  out  he  nailed  them  to- 
gether. He  did  not  split  any  of  the  boards 


164  HUBERT. 

in  nailing  them,  for  he  had  learned  how  to 
put  the  nails  in  right ;  and  did  not  indent 
the  wood  any  by  the  head  of  the  hammer, 
for  he  had  learned  to  drive  them  right. 

"  And  so  Joey  went  on,"  continued  Hu- 
bert. "  His  father  would  only  buy  him  one 
tool  at  a  time,  and  not  get  another  till  he 
had  learned  to  use  that." 

"  And  of  course  every  new  tool  was  a 
great  pleasure  to  him,"  said  Juno ;  "  much 
greater  than  if  he  had  had  them  all  at  once." 

"  Certainly,"  said  Hubert ;  "  and  we  had 
better  go  along  the  same  way,  Georgie. 
We  have  got  a  hammer,  and  all  we  want 
for  our  bench  is  some  planed  boards  and 
some  nails  and  a  saw." 

/ 

When  Georgie  informed  his  father  that 
they  were  ready  to  build  their  bench,  and 
said  that  they  would  need  a  saw,  some 


HUBERT'S  CALCULATION.  165 

planed  boards  and  some  nails,  he  at  once 
gave  Georgie  permission  to  procure  them. 
He  said  they  must  calculate  how  many  feet 
of  boards  they  would  require,  and  how  many 
nails,  and  then  go  with  the  small  hand-cart 
to  the  mill  for  the  boards,  and  also  to  the 
hardware  store  for  the  saw  and  the  nails; 
and  he  gave  them  the  money  to  pay  for  all 
these  things. 

Hubert  made  the  calculation  very  easily 
of  the  quantity  of  lumber  which  would  be 
required  for  the  bench — so  many  feet  of 
joist  for  the  four  legs,  and  so  many  feet  of 
boards  for  the  top  and  sides  of  the  bench. 
The  bench  was  to  be  two  feet  wide,  two  feet 
eight  inches  high,  and  six  feet  long.  Hubert 
made  his  calculation  to  have  boards  to  cover 
the  top,  and  to  come  down  about  a  foot  on 
the  sides  and  at  the  ends. 

When  Juno  saw  how  well  he  made  this 


l66  HUBERT. 

computation,  she  said  to  herself  that  she 
thought  there  could  not  be  any  difficulty 
with  the  calculating  machinery  in  Hubert's 
brain,  but  she  was  convinced  that  the  only 
trouble  with  him,  in  respect  to  his  arith- 
metic, was  that  he  was  "  off  the  track." 

All  this  that  has  been  related  in  this  chap- 
ter, took  place  before  the  day  when  Hubert 
came  to  be  an  active  member  of  her  school ; 
and  Juno,  after  she  had  heard  Hubert's 
story  and  returned  to  the  house,  resumed 
her  sewing,  and  as  she  sewed  her  thoughts 
reverted  to  what  she  had  heard.  The  first 
thought  was  the  one  already  referred  to  ; 
namely,  the  conviction  on  her  part  that 
there  was  no  natural  incapacity  for  compu- 
tation in  Hubert,  to  account  for  his  dislike 
to  arithmetic,  but  only  that  he  was,  as  she 
expressed  it,  "  off  the  track  ;"  and  that  the 
main  thing  which  she  had  to  do  was  to  put 


ABOUT   LONG   DIVISION.  1 67 

him  on  again.  Then  she  began  to  think  of 
Hubert's  story  of  Joey. 

"  Joey's  father  was  a  very  sensible  man," 
she  said  to  herself,  "  in  teaching  him  one 
thing  at  a  time.  Indeed,  he  sometimes  only 
taught  him  part  of  one  thing  at  a  time. 
Who  would  have  thought  of  dividing  such 
a  simple  thing  as  driving  a  nail  into  two 
parts,  and  teaching  them  separately  ?  And 
yet  that's  what  he  did.  Setting  the  nail 
properly  was  one  part,  and  hitting  it  right 
with  the  hammer  another. 

"  I  must  manage  in  the  same  way  in  teach- 
ing Hubert  long  division.  I'll  see  how  many 
parts  I  can  divide  it  into,  and  teach  him  one 
at  a  time.  That  is  the  way  they  make  it  so 
hard  for  the  children  in  schools  sometimes, 
poor  things  !  They  try  to  make  them  eat 
too  fast,  and  give  them  too  large  mouthfuls, 
and  so  choke  them,  as  I  did  my  little  bird." 


168  HUBERT. 

Then  Juno  began  to  think  of  a  young  bird 
which  she  had  when  she  was  a  child. 

"  Poor  little  thing  !"  she  said,  "  I  remem- 
ber just  how  he  looked  when  my  brother 
brought  him  home  to  me.  He  said  he  found 
him  on  the  ground.  Some  boys  had  shot 
the  mother-bird  off  the  nest,  and  knocked 
the  nest  down  to  the  ground  ;  and  all  the 
little  birds  were  killed  except  this  one. 
How  wide  he  opened  his  mouth,  poor 
thing !  I  thought  he  opened  it  so  wide 
because  he  was  very  hungry,  and  wanted 
me  to  give  him  good  big  crumbs  of  bread, 
and  so  I  did,  and  choked  him  to  death." 

"  I  don't  wonder  that  the  children  in 
school  get  choked  sometimes,  they  give 
them  such  big  things  to  swallow  at  a  time. 
Long  division  is  a  great  deal  too  big  a  thing 
to  be  taken  all  at  once.  I'll  divide,  and  let 
Hubert  take  part  of  it  at  a  time. 


JUNO   MUSING.  169 

"  And  they  don't  have  the  same  excuse 
for  giving  the  children  too  big  mouthfuls," 
she  continued,  musing,  after  a  moment's 
pause,  "  that  I  had  with  my  bird,  for  the 
children  don't  open  their  mouths  wide  for 
them  at  all." 


CHAPTER  XV. 
Long  Division  Divided. 

~T"TTHEN  the  time  arrived  for  Hubert  to 
begin  his  studies,  he  took  his  slate 
and  sat  down  at  a  table  which  Juno  had  pre- 
pared, where  there  was  room  enough  for 
Georgie  to  sit  by  his  side,  Juno  then  said, — 
"  There  are  four  things  to  be  done,  one 
after  the  other  in  long  division.     First  you 
have  to  divide  in  a  certain  way ;  then  you 
have  to  multiply ;  then  you  have  to  subtract ; 
and  then  you  have  to  bring  down  a  figure. 
The  last  is  the  easiest,  and  that  is  what  you 
will  begin  with,  Hubert.     That  is  all  you 
will  have  to  learn  to-day.     You  see  you  are 
(170) 


COMMENCING   OPERATIONS.  I /I 

going  to  learn  one  thing  at  a  time.  You 
will  do  the  bringing  down,  and  Georgie 
will  do  all  the  rest.  But  in  order  that  you 
may  see  that  Georgie  does  his  part  regu- 
larly, I  wish  you  to  write  these  words  on 
the  corner  of  your  slate,  one  under  the  other 
in  a  column." 

So  Juno  dictated  the  words  as  Hubert 
wrote  them,  as  follows  : 
Divide, 
Multiply, 
Subtract, 
Bring  Down. 

Then  Juno  gave  out  a  question.  It  was 
to  divide  a  long  row  of  figures  by  13.  The 
row  of  figures  extended  half  across  the  slate, 
from  the  left  side  to  the  middle. 

She  then  directed  them  to  begin.  Geor- 
gie was  to  commence  the  operation,  taking 
one  step  at  a  time,  and  saying  what  he  was 


1/2  HUBERT. 

doing  as  he  went  along,  until  he  came  to 
bringing  down  the  next  figure,  in  the  dividend, 
when  he  was  to  pass  the  pencil  into  Hu- 
bert's hands,  and  let  him  do  that  part. 

So  Georgie  began. 

"  The  first  thing  you  see,"  said  Georgie 
to  Hubert,  speaking  in  an  undertone,  "  is  to 
divide.  The  way  I  do  that  is  to  see  how 
many  times  13  will  go  in  the  first  two  fig- 
ures which  are  27.  I  think  it  will  go  twice, 
and  so  I  put  the  2  down  in  the  quotient." 

"Now,"  said  Georgie,  "the  next  thing  is 
to  multiply." 

As  he  said  this  he  pointed  to  the  word 
multiply,  in  the  list  of  things  to  be  done 
which  Hubert  had  written  on  the  slate. 
Then  he  multiplied  the  13  by  the  figure  in 
the  quotient,  namely  2,  and  set  the  result 
down  under  the  two  figures  which  had  been 
divided. 


BRINGING-DOWN.  173 

"  Now,"  said  Georgie,  "  the  list  says  that 
the  next  thing  to  be  done  is  to  subtract,  and 
this  is  the  way  we  do  it.  He  then  drew  a 
line,  made  the  proper  subtraction,  and  set 
down  the  remainder  underneath." 

"Now,"  said  Georgie,  "it  comes  your 
turn.  See,  the  next  thing  in  the  list  is  to 
bring  down" 

So  he  gave  the  pencil  into  Hubert's  hand, 
and  showed  what  the  figure  was  which  was 
to  be  brought  down,  and  where  he  was  to 
put  it. 

Georgie  went  on  with  the  work  in  this 
way,  being  careful  in  every  step  that  he 
took,  to  show  Hubert  the  word  on  the  list 
which  denoted  it,  and  stopping  to  let  Hu- 
bert bring  down  the  figure,  at  every  return 
of  the  word  directing  it.  Hubert  was  at 
first,  when  his  turn  came,  a  little  at  a  loss  to 
know  exactly  what  figure  it  was  that  he  was 
15* 


HUBERT. 

to  bring  down,  and  where  he  was  to  put  it ; 
but  he  soon  came  to  understand  it  so,  that 
he  did  it  promptly  and  correctly  the  mo- 
ment the  pencil  was  put  into  his  hand,  and 
he  was  quite  pleased  to  find  that  he  could 
do  it  so  readily  and  so  certainly.  They 
went  on  in  that  way  until  the  operation  was 
completed.  Toward  the  last  part  of  the 
time,  Hubert  began  to  find  his  part  of  the 
work  somewhat  too  easy,  and  he  had  a  great 
mind  to  ask  to  be  allowed  to  do  the  subtrac- 
tion, too.  But  he  concluded  on  the  whole 
to  proceed  just  as  Juno  had  directed,  and 
so  he  went  on  to  the  end,  taking  no  part  in 
the  work,  except  to  bring  down  the  new 
figure,  when  a  new  one  was  required. 

When  the  work  was  done  the  boys  took 
the  slate  to  Juno.  She  looked  over  it  care- 
fully, but  said  nothing  till  she  reached  the 
end.  Then  she  nodded  her  head  with  a 


WORKING   STEADILY.  1/5 

look  of  satisfaction,  and  said,  "  All  right." 
She  did  not  say  a  word  in  praise  of  Hubert 
for  having  been  attentive  and  diligent,  and 
for  having  succeeded  in  his  work  well ;  but 
seemed  to  take  it  for'granted  that  of  course 
he  would  succeed  and  would  do  it  well. 

Now  Juno  in  this  lesson  had  accomplished 
a  great  thing  for  Hubert  in  respect  to  his 
intellectual  training.  Some  persons  might 
•  perhaps  say,  "  Oh,  no  ;  it  was  a  very  little 
thing.  A  very  little  thing  indeed.  He  had 
learned  nothing  of  long  division,  but  just 
how  to  bring  down  the  figure  after  each 
subtraction,  which  is  almost  nothing  at  all." 

But  it  was  not  the  change  in  respect  to 
his  arithmetical  knowledge,  that  was  the 
important  thing  in  this  case.  It  was  that 
she  had  induced  him  to  work  steadily  for 
half  an  hour,  without  impatience,  vexation, 
or  fretfulness  in  doing  something  with  fig- 


1/6  HUBERT. 

ures  ;  and  had  thus  prepared  the  way  for 
his  going  on  to  something  that  was  really 
important  in  respect  to  the  figures  them- 
selves. In  a  word  she  had  got  the  wheels 
up  from  among  the  sticks  of  wood  and  mud, 
and  on  the  track.  She  was  very  much 
pleased  with  the  half  hour's  work.  "  He'll 
go  along  now,"  said  she,  "  I  feel  pretty  sure 
— that  is,  if  I  don't  push  him  along  too  fast 
at  first,  and  get  him  off  the  track  again." 

The  next  day,  when  the  arithmetic  hour 
came,  she  gave  the  boys  the  same  example 
that  she  had  given  them  the  day  before, 
only  this  day  Hubert  was  to  take  for  his 
part  the  "  Subtraction,"  as  well  as  the 
"  Bringing  Down." 

Hubert  liked  his  lesson  the  second  day 
even  better  than  he  did  the  first.  He  be- 
gan to  feel  that  he  was  now  really  entering 
upon  solid  work.  After  he  had  performed 


THE   MULTIPLYING.  1 77 

the  subtraction  several  times,  he  told  Geor- 
gie  that  he  believed  he  could  do  the  multi- 
plying, too,  and  he  asked  Georgie  to  let  him 
try.  He  had  watched  Georgie,  of  course, 
as  he  performed  his  portion  of  the  work  con- 
nected with  each  figure  of  the  quotient,  so 
that  he  began  to  have  some  connected  idea 
of  the  whole  process,  and  certainly  thought 
that  he  could  take  that  additional  step — 
namely,  the  multiplying.  Georgie  said  he 
might  try.  Accordingly,  after  the  next  fig- 
ure was  set  in  the  quotient,  he  performed 
the  multiplication  of  the  divisor  by  it  him- 
self, and  brought  it  right. 

As  soon  as  he  had  finished  this  step,  and 
had  set  down  his  figure,  Juno  said, — 

"  Hubert,  what  do  they  call  it  when  a 
saw  runs  off  the  line  when  you  are  saw- 
ing ?" 

Juno  remembered  having  heard  Hubert 


178  HUBERT. 

talking  about  this  difficulty  at  one  time,  in 
conversation  with  Georgie. 

"  They  say  it  runs"  replied  Hubert.  "  It 
is  because  the  teeth  are  set  wider  on  one 
side  than  the  other.  At  least  that's  what 
Isaiah  said,  but  I  never  could  see  any  differ- 
ence." 

"  You  don't  like  such  saws  very  well,  I 
suppose,"  said  Juno. 

"  No,"  replied  Hubert.  "  I  want  a  saw  to 
keep  true  to  the  line  I  make  for  it." 

"  Then  you  won't  think  it  unreasonable,  I 
suppose,"  said  Juno, "  if  I  should  like  to  have 
my  scholars  keep  true  to  the  line  I  mark 
out  for  them." 

"  No,"  replied  Hubert.  "  Of  course  not." 
He  had  no  idea,  however,  what  it  was  that 
Juno  referred  to. 

"  I  drew  a  line,"  rejoined  Juno,  "  for  you 
and  Georgie  to  follow,  —  which  was,  that 


OFF   THE   TRACK.  179 

you  should  perform  the  subtraction,  and 
Georgie  do  all  the  rest.  Are  you  on  that 
line  or  off  of  it  ?" 

"  We've  run  off,"  Hubert  said,  laughing. 
"  I  am  doing  the  multiplying,  and  I  was  only 
to  do  the  subtracting."  Then  looking  to- 
ward Juno,  he  said, — 

"  I  found  I  could  do  the  multiplying,  too, 
and  I  thought  you  wished  me  to  get  along 
as  fast  as  I  could." 

"  True,"  said  Juno;  "  and  so  you  are  not 
at  all  to  blame  for  running  off  the  line.  I 
don't  blame  you  at  all  for  it.  You  did  what 
you  thought  was  right.  Then  besides,  per- 
haps, the  line  was  wrong  ;  perhaps  it  would 
have  been  better  for  me  to  have  said  that 
you  were  to  go  on  doing  nothing  but  the 
subtracting  and  bringing  down,  until  you 
found  that  you  could  do  the  multiplying, 
too.  But  I  did  not  say  that.  And  which 


180  HUBERT. 

would  you  like  best,  a  saw  that  would  al- 
ways keep  to  the  line  that  you  drew  for  it, 
wherever  the  line  run,  or  one  that  could 
think  a  little,  and  would  run  off  when  it 
thought  the  line  was  wrong  ?" 

Hubert  laughed,  and  turning  to  Georgie, 
he  said,  "  Go  ahead,  Georgie,  I'll  only  sub- 
tract and  bring  down." 

Juno  was  very  gentle  and  good-natured 
in  her  methods  of  management,  but  she  was 
extremely  decided  and  firm  in  requiring  all 
children  that  were  placed  under  her  charge 
to  conform  strictly  to  her  directions  in  all 
cases.  If  a  child  thought  that  her  direc- 
tions or  commands  in  any  case  were  wrong, 
she  did  not  defend  them,  by  explaining  the 
reasons  for  them,  since  she  wished  the  chil- 
dren to  understand  that  they  must  obey 
them,  whether  they  understood  the  reasons 
or  not. 


OBEYING   INSTRUCTIONS.  l8l 

Hubert  did  perfectly  right,  or  rather,  he 
did  no  wrong  in  going  beyond  Juno's  in- 
structions, because  he  had  not  been  with 
Juno  long  enough  to  know  that  she  never 
gave  definite  and  positive  instructions,  with- 
out some  good  reason  for  them,  founded  on 
careful  consideration  and  reflection ;  and 
that  her  instructions  must,  when  given,  be 
implicitly  obeyed.  He  thought  he  was  do- 
ing what  would  please  Juno  in  going  on 
faster  than  she  had  expected  ;  supposing 
that  she  would,  of  course,  wish  him  to  go 
on  as  fast  as  he  could.  But  he  was  mistaken 
in  this.  Juno  did  not  wish  him  to  go  on  as 
fast  as  he  could.  She  had  got  the  engine 
on  the  track  as  she  hoped,  but  she  thought 
it  best  to  go  quite  slowly  and  cautiously  for 
a  time.  Or,  to  speak  without  any  metaphor, 
Hubert  had  been  so  crowded  and  pressed 
and  worried,  by  being  forced  forward  be- 
16 


182  HUBERT. 

yond  where  he  was  capable  of  going,  that 
she  thought  it  better  to  hold  him  back  for  a 
time,  where  his  work  was  easy — too  easy 
even — so  as  to  awaken  and  strengthen  in  his 
mind  the  desire  to  go  forward  faster.  This 
desire  to  take  another  step  onward  was  the 
first  springing  up  in  his  mind  of  a  love  for 
arithmetic,  to  take  the  place  of  the  hatred 
of  it  which  the  policy  of  driving  him  on  too 
fast  had  engendered  ;  and  she  wished  to 
give  this  new  feeling  time  to  take  root  a  lit- 
tle before  she  put  any  strain  upon  it.  If  he 
had  gone  on  to  the  multiplying,  before  he 
had  become  entirely  familiar  with  the  sub- 
tracting and  bringing  down,  and  had  then 
become  perplexed  and  puzzled  among  the 
three, — the  wheels  would  have  been  off  the 
track  again, — or  would  be  in  danger  of  go- 
ing off, — and  her  work  would  have  to  be 
done  over  again. 


PRINCIPLE   OF   OBEDIENCE.  183 

She  would  not  explain  these  reasons  to 
Hubert,  however,  at  this  time,  because  she 
wished  his  following  the  instructions  which 
she  had  given  him,  to  rest  entirely  on  the 
principle  of  obedience ;  though  in  enforcing 
and  insisting  upon  this  principle,  she  spoke 
and  acted  in  a  very  gentle  and  good-natured 
manner.  She  wished  Hubert  to  do  as  she 
said,  because  she  said  it,  and  not  because  he 
saw  that  the  reasons  for  it  were  good. 

And  this  is  the  way  in  which  all  children 
ought  to  obey  their  parents.  They  must  do 
thus  and  so,  or  avoid  doing  this  or  that,  be- 
cause their  parents  have  so  directed,  wheth- 
er they  understand  the  reasons  or  not.  In 
many  cases  they  would  not  understand  the 
reasons  if  they  were  explained.  In  many 
other  cases  there  is  not  time  to  explain 
them. 

I  think  it  very  probable  that  Juno's  com- 


1 84  HUBERT. 

parison  of  a  child  disobeying  the  teacher,  to 
the  case  of  a  saw  which  runs  true  to  the 
line,  aided  very  much  in  leading  Hubert  to 
fall  in  readily  with  her  system  of  implicit 
obedience.  He  was  so  much  interested  in 
everything  connected  with  mechanics,  that 
such  a  comparison  was,  of  course,  calculated 
to  strike  his  fancy  quite  forcibly.  Then,  be- 
sides, he  had  such  agreeable  associations 
with  the  idea  of  a  tool  working  true,  and 
entirely  in  subservience  to  the  will  of  the 
workman,  that  it  helped  him  very  much  to 
see  the  beauty  of  implicit  obedience  to  right- 
ful authority,  in  a  child, — a  beauty  which 
many  children  are  very  slow  to  perceive. 

Running  true  to  the  line,  became  after- 
ward quite  a  proverb  between  Juno  and  the 
boys.  When  she  sent  them  anywhere  with 
special  instructions,  instead  of  saying,  at 
last,  "  And  now  be  sure  to  do  exactly  as  I 


KEEP   TRUE   TO   THE   LINE.  185 

have  told  you."  She  would  say,  "And  keep 
true  to  the  line."  This  meant  the  same 
thing, — but  it  had  a  greater  influence  on  the 
boys  minds,  put  in  that  form  ;  for  they  were 
both  decidedly  averse  to  proceeding  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  make  their  action  come  un- 
der the  same  category  with  that  of  a  saw, 
with  its  teeth  set  unevenly,  so  as  to  make  it 
run  off  the  line  and  go  away. 

Juno  went  on  in  this  way  for  a  fortnight, 
allowing  Hubert  to  take  only  one  step  each 
day  in  learning  the  several  parts  of  the  com- 
plicated process  of  long  division.  It  was  an 
excellent  exercise  for  Georgie  as  well  as 
Hubert,  as  it  gave  him  practice  in  compu- 
tation, and  aided  decidedly  in  advancing 
the  development  of  his  arithmetical  powei's. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  Hubert  under- 
stood the  process  very  well,  so  far  as  to 
be  able  to  go  on  with  it  quite  readily, 
1 6* 


186  HUBERT. 

when    there    was    no    special    difficulty   in 
the  way. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  special  difficul- 
ties sometimes  to  be  encountered,  and  Juno 
had  not  yet  taught  him  anything  about 
these.  She  had  only  taught  him  the  regu- 
lar steps  of  the  process,  so  that  he  could  go 
on  by  himself  so  long  as  everything  went 
smoothly  and  well.  When  he  became  in- 
volved in  any  difficulty,  she  did  not  attempt 
to  explain  the  nature  of  the  difficulty  to 
him,  and  try  to  show  him,  at  the  time,  how 
to  get  out  of  it, — as  many  persons  might, 
perhaps,  at  first  think  was  the  proper  course ; 
•  but  would  let  Georgie  take  the  pencil  and 
carry  the  operation  past  the  difficulty,  or 
would  do  it  herself,  and  then  let  Hubert 
take  it,  and  go  on  again  when  the  way  was 
clear.  But  this  point  will  be  explained  more 
fully  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 
Difficulties. 

~T~TTHEN  you  have  learned  to  practice 
any  art  in  its  regular  course,  while 
everything  goes  on  well,  you  have  only  half 
learned  it.  That  is  but  the  first  stage  of  the 
work.  There  is  a  stage  which  is  quite  as 
important,  and  which,  perhaps,  requires  still 
more  effort  and  attention  than  the  first — and 
that  is  to  learn  how  to  manage  when  unex- 
pected emergencies  and  difficulties  occur. 
To  know  how  to  act  while  everything  goes 
smoothly  and  prosperously,  is  one  thing ; 
to  know  what  to  do  when  accidents  or  ob- 


188  HUBERT. 

stacles  occur,  is  another,  and  a  very  different 
thing. 

For  instance,  a  boy  undertook  to  teach 
his  young  brother  how  to  split  logs  of  wood 
with  beetle  and  wedge.  He  showed  him 
how  to  make  first  a  cleft  with  an  axe,  in 
which  to  insert  the  wedge.  This  is  neces- 
sary because  the  wedge  is  not  usually  sharp 
enough  to  enter  by  itself,  and  also  because, 
even  if  it  were  sharp,  it  would  be  very  diffi- 
cult to  hold  the  wedge  with  one  hand  against 
the  wood,  and  strike  hard  enough  with  the 
heavy  beetle  to  make  it  enter  with  the  other. 
He  also  taught  him,  when  he  had  driven  in 
one  wedge  far  enough  to  open  the  cleft  a 
little,  how  he  was  to  put  in  another  and  an- 
other, following  up  the  cleft  until  the  log 
was  split  open  entirely.  .After  the  boy  had 
done  this  and  had  split  open  two  or  three 
logs,  he  thought  he  understood  kthe  manage- 


DIFFICULTIES.  189 

ment  of  a  beetle  and  wedge  entirely.  But 
his  brother  said  no. 

"  You  have  learned,"  said  he,  "  the  regu- 
lar work,  but  you  have  not  learned  how  to 
get  out  of  the  difficulties.  Sometimes  when 
you  have  a  gnarled  and  knotted  log  to  split 
you  get  all  your  wedges  driven  in  home, 
and  the  log  does  not  come  open,  but  holds 
the  wedges  tight.  Sometimes  one  of  the 
beetle-rings  comes  off,  or  the  handle  comes 
out.  You  have  not  learned  what  to  do  when 
such  accidents  happen.  You  will  have  to 
come  to  me  to  get  you  out  of  the  difficulty 
in  such  cases,  and  then  you  can  go  on  again. 
So  you  have  yet  only  half  learned  the  art 
of  splitting  wood  with  beetle  and  wedges." 

This  was  no  doubt  true,  and  in  the  same 
manner  a  boy  may  learn  how  to  plane,  so  that 
he  can  plane  pretty  well,  so  long  as  the  plane 
is  in  good  order,  and  the  wood  is  soft,  and 


1 90  HUBERT. 

dry,  and  straight-grained,  and  everything 
goes  well ;  but  he  cannot  be  considered  a 
good  planer  unless  he  knows  what  to  do 
when  the  wood  is  damp  or  cross-grained, 
and  the  plane  won't  cut,  or  gets  choked  up 
with  shavings. 

A  young  man  might  think  that  he  was 
qualified  to  drive  a  stage  on  a  route,  from 
one  town  to  another  in  a  back  country,  be- 
cause he  had  learned  to  manage  four  horses 
well  on  an  ordinary  road,  and  knew  how  to 
hold  back  in  going  down  hill,  and  to  spare 
his  horses  going  up  hill,  and  to  judge  cor- 
rectly in  turning  out,  in  respect  to  how  far 
he  could  go  where  it  was  sideling  without 
danger  of  going  over.  But  that  would  not 
be  enough.  That  would  be  enough,  it  is 
true,  to  make  him  a  good  driver  while  all 
was  going  on  well,  but  a  good  deal  more 
than  that  is  required  to  make  it  safe  to  en- 


WHAT   MAKES  A   GOOD   DRIVER.         IQI 

trust  a  long  stage  route  to  him.  He  must 
know  how  to  act  in  difficulties  and  emer- 
gencies :  as,  for  example,  when  a  tire  breaks 
or  a  wheel  comes  off  in  a  solitary  place  on 
the  road  far  away  from  any  house;  or  if 
one  of  his  horses  should  have  a  fit ;  or  if  in 
going  through  the  woods  he  finds  a  great 
tree  blown  down  across  the  track  ;  or  if  an 
important  part  of  harness  breaks,  and  no 
help,  is  near.  To  make  a  good  driver  it  is 
required  that  a  man  should  not  only  be  able 
to  drive  well  when  everything  is  smooth  and 
prosperous,  but  that  he  should  also  know 
how  to  act  in  unexpected  and  difficult  emer- 
gencies. 

Now  it  is,  perhaps,  most  usual  that  when 

persons  are  learning  any  particular  art,  or 

the  performance  of  any  operation  requiring 

skill,  that  they  learn  both  the  easy  and  the 

.     difficult  things  together ;   that  is,  they  take 


HUBERT. 

them  just  as  they  happen  to  come  :  as,  for 
instance,  when  a  boy  in  learning  to  split  logs 
gets  the  wedge  all  imbedded  in  the  wood,  or 
one  of  the  rings  off  his  beetle,  does  not  know 
what  to  do,  his  father  teaches  him  at  once 
what  to  do  in  such  cases,  and  so  he  learns 
how  to  conduct  the  regular  work,  and  how 
to  get  out  of  the  difficulties  at  the  same  time. 
Indeed,  this  is  usually  the  course  pursued 
by  teachers,  while  carrying  their  scholars 
through  long  division.  They  point  out  to 
the  pupil  what  the  nature  of  the  difficulty  is 
whenever  they  get  into  one,  and  show  them 
on  the  spot  how  they  are  to  get  out  of  it. 
This  is  indeed  often  the  best  way.  But  Juno 
was  so  afraid  that  Hubert  would  get  again 
perplexed  and  entangled,  and  so  stopped  in 
his  progress,  or,  as  she  expressed  it,  that  he 
would  get  off  the  track  again,  that  she 
thought  it  would  be  best  to  reserve  the 


BEYOND   THE   DIFFICULLY.  193 

difficulties  for  a  separate  part  of  her  course. 
So  she  had  directed  Georgie  only  to  let  Hu- 
bert go  on  with  the  work  as  long  as  it  went 
smoothly  and  well,  and  as  soon  as  he  made 
any  mistakes  and  became  involved  in  any 
difficulty,  to  take  the  pencil  himself  and 
carry  the  work  on  beyond  the  difficulty ; 
and  then,  when  the  way  was  clear,  to  let 
Hubert  take  the  pencil  and  go  on  again. 
She  would  teach  him  how  to  deal  with  the 
difficulties  by  and  by,  she  said,  taking  up 
one  kind  of  a  difficulty  at  a  time. 

The  first  difficulty  was  when,  after  multi- 
plying, it  appears  that  the  product  obtained 
is  larger  than  the  number  above  it  which 
was  divided,  so  that  the  subtraction  cannot 
be  performed.  Juno  explained  to  Hubert 
that  this  was  because  the  figure  in  the  quo-  m 
tient  was  too  large,  and  that  to  remedy 
the  difficulty  he  must  rub  out  that  figure, 
17 


194  HUBERT. 

make  a  new  one  smaller,  and  then  multiply 
again. 

She  went  on  in  this  way,  explaining  one 
after  another  the  various  difficulties  and  en- 
tanglements which  children  usually  get  into 
in  performing  operations  in  long  division 
when  they  are  not  fully  familiar  with  all  parts 
of  the  process.  She  took  only  one  of  these 
difficulties  at  a  time,  and  when  Hubert  came 
to  it  in  his  work,  taught  him  how  to  get  out 
of  it  himself,  while  Georgie  or  she  herself, 
when  he  came  to  any  other  difficulty,  went 
over  it  for  him.  In  this  way,  after  a  reason- 
able time,  he  had  learned  the  process  quite 
well,  and  in  learning  it  had  experienced 
nothing  but  satisfaction  and  pleasure. 

I  have  explained  thus  fully  the  course 
which  Juno  pursued  in  raising  Hubert  out 
of  his  difficulties  in  arithmetic,  and  getting 
him  well  under  way  again,  in  hopes  that  if 


THE   DIFFICULTY   OVERCOME.  195 

among  the  older  boys  and  girls  who  may 
read  this  book,  there  are  any  who  have 
younger  brothers  and  sisters  who  are  in 
substantially  the  same  condition  that  Hubert 
was  in  —  perplexed,  discouraged  and  un- 
happy—  they  may  try  Juno's  experiment 
upon  them  ;  at  least  so  far  as  to  attempt  to 
help  them  out  of  their  troubles,  if  not  pre- 
cisely in  the  same  way,  at  least  on  the  same 
principles.  If  they  do  make  such  an  attempt 
and  should  succeed  in  it,  I  am  sure  that  it 
will  be  a  source  of  great  satisfaction  and 
pleasure  to  them,  as  well  as  of  relief  and 
comfort  to  the  children  whom  they  aid. 

After  Hubert  had  learned  to  do  long  di- 
vision well,  Juno  gave  him  one  example  long 
enough  to  fill  the  whole  slate,  and  when  it 
was  done,  and  Hubert  had  brought  it  to 
her,  as  he  did,  with  a  countenance  expres- 
sive of  great  satisfaction,  and  she  had  looked 


196  HUBERT. 

at  it  and  found  it  all  right,  she  asked  him 
how  he  would  like  to  take  the  slate  home, 
and  show  his  work  to  his  aunt,  Mrs.  Wood. 

"  Your  aunt  will  be  much  gratified,"  Juno 
said,  "  to  see  how  well  you  are  going  on." 

But  immediately  on  hearing  this  proposal 
Hubert's  countenance  fell. 

"Wouldn't  you  like  to  do  it?"  asked 
Juno.  "  Don't  you  think  it  would  please 
her?" 

Hubert  shook  his  head,  and  said,  "  I  don't 
think  anything  would  please  her.  She  would 
look  over  the  whole  sum  and  be  sure  to  find 
something  that  was  not  right,  and  that  she 
could  find  fault  with." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Juno,  "  you  can  do  just 
as  you  think  best.  I  think  you  have  done 
the  work  very  well,  and  that  there  is  no 
occasion  to  find  fault  with  it  on  any  account." 

So  Hubert  went  away  with  his  slate  and 


PRESSING   TOWARDS   PERFECTION.      197 

wiped  out  his  sum,  as  quick  as  he  could  with 
his  sponge,  for  fear  that  Juno  might  alter 
her  mind,  and  think  that  after  all  it  was  best 
for  him  to  go  and  show  his  work  to  Mrs. 
Wood. 

I  presume  that  Hubert  was  right  in  his 
idea  of  what  his  aunt  would  have  said  and 
thought  about  his  work.  She  would  have 
examined  it  very  critically  no  doubt.  In- 
deed, the  better  the  work  was  done  the 
more  critically  she  would  have  examined 
it,  and  the  more  carefully  she  would  have 
pointed  out  all  the  faults  that  she  could  find. 
She  would  have  done  this,  moreover,  from 
the  best  of  motives  ;  namely,  from  a  desire 
to  keep  up  Hubert's  standard  of  accuracy 
and  precision  to  the  highest  point,  and  to 
stimulate  him  to  greater  effort  in  pressing 
on  toward  perfection. 
If* 


CHAPTER   XVII. 
Mrs,  Wood  Surprised. 

TUNO  found  that  the  principle  of  divid- 
ing the  intellectual  aliment  which  she 
had  to  administer  to  her  pupils,  into  very 
small  portions,  proved  so  advantageous  in 
practice  by  promoting  so  evidently  the  easy 
and  rapid  digestion  of  it,  that  she  carried  it 
into  many  things,  and  sometimes  in  quite  a 
curious  way.  For  example,  in  teaching  the 
boys  the  multiplication-table — for  she  had 
the  good  sense  to  see  that  one  of  the  things 
the  most  fundamental  in  importance  in  arith- 
metic, was  that  the  pupil  should  be  abso- 
lutely and  perfectly  familiar  with  the  raulti- 
(198) 


THE   PRODUCT   OF   NINE.  199 

plication-table  —  she  even  divided  the  pro- 
ducts in  the  line  of  nines  into  two  parts, 
separating  the  first  figure  of  the  several  pro- 
ducts from  the  last,  and  taught  them  one  at 
a  time,  thus : 

She  let  them  look  over  the  line  of  nines  in 
the  table,  and  observe  that  the  first  figure 
of  the  product  of  nine  into  any  factor,  was 
one  less  than  that  factor ;  that  is,  that  nine 
times  eight  make  seventy  something ;  nine 
times  seven,  sixty  something,  and  so  with  all 
the  rest.  The  boys  could  perceive  the  ex- 
istence of  this  law  easily  by  the  time  that 
they  came  to  the  number  three,  which 
was  twenty  something,  and  Hubert  was  very 
much  interested  in  it  when  it  was  pointed 
out  to  him.  He  thought  it  very  curious, 
and  after  a  little  practice,  he  learned  to  re- 
peat the  line  in  this  way,  that  is,  mentioning 
only  the  first  figure  of  the  product,  thus  : 


200  HUBERT. 

9  times  I  are    9  ; 

9  times  2  are  18  ; 

9  times  3  are  20  something  ; 

9  times  4  are  30  something  ; 

9  times  5  are  40  something  ; 
and  so  on  through  the  line. 

Hubert  did  not  perceive  that  the  law 
came  into  operation  until  he  came  to  the 
third  figure,  but  the  intelligent  reader  will 
perceive  that  it  applies  equally  to  the  case 
of  9  times  I  and  9  times  2,  though  it  is  less 
obvious  in  respect  to  those  factors  than  the 
other. 

Hubert  was  much  pleased  that  he  could 
learn  half,  or  half  learn, — he  did  not  know 
which  to  call  it, — the  line  of  nines  so  easily. 
And  when  afterward  Juno  questioned  him 
at  random,  and  he  found  that  with  a  little 
practice  he  could  answer  readily,  he  was 
still  more  pleased.  For  instance,  when  she 


THE   PRODUCT   OF  NINE.  2OI 

asked  how  much  are  9  times  8,  it  was  easy 
for  him  to  see  that  it  must  be  70  something-, 
and  that  9  times  4  must  be  30  something, 
and  so  on. 

After  Hubert  understood  this  perfectly, 
and  could  give  promptly  the  first  figure  of 
the  product  of  nine  by  any  number,  she 
showed  him  a  curious  way  of  determining 
what  the  second  figure  would  be,  by  con- 
sidering how  much  must  be  added  to  the 
first  to  make  nine.  For,  as  she  made  him 
observe,  all  the  products  of  9  by  any  single 
figure  have  this  remarkable  property,  that 
when  the  two  figures  that  compose  it  are 
added  together  they  make  9.  For  example, 
3  times  9  makes  27,  and  the  two  figures  of 
27  added  together  make  9.  In  the  same 
manner  4  times  9  make  36,  and  3  and  6 
make  9,  and  so  with  all  the  rest. 

It  follows  from  these  two  properties  of 


202  HUBERT. 

the  products  of  9  into  any  single  figures, 
that  in  order  to  determine  what  any  pro- 
duct is,  you  have  only  first  to  take  a  figure 
denoting  a  number  i  less  than  the  multiplier 
for  the  first  figure,  and  another,  sufficient 
to  make  9  when  added  to  the  first,  for  the 
second  figure.  Thus,  for  9  times  7  we  take 
6  for  the  first  figure,  because  it  is  one  less 
than  7  and  3,  because  3  added  to  6  makes  9, 
for  the  second,  and  we  get  63  for  the  an- 
swer. 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  all 
this  is  only  useful  as  a  means  of  interesting 
and  amusing  a  boy  while  he  is  learning  the 
table,  and  making  it,  perhaps,  somewhat 
easier  for  him  to  learn  it ;  or,  at  any  rate, 
beguiling  the  tediousness  of  the  work  in 
some  degree  by  presenting  to  his  mind  some- 
thing besides  the  wearisome  toil  of  commit- 
ting arbitrary  and  unmeaning  numbers  to 


BEGUILING   TIME.  2O3 

memory.  Of  course,  it  would  be  impossible 
when  multiplying  numbers  for  the  purpose 
of  actual  computation  to  go  through,  even 
mentally,  with  all  the  steps  above  described 
to  find  out  what  the  product  is  in  any  case. 
We  must  know  when  we  come  to  actual 
practice,  that  7  times  9  are  63  at  once,  and 
without  stopping  to  think  an  instant.  So 
that  to  understand  what  has  been  explained 
above,  about  the  products  of  9  multiplied 
by  single  figures,  is  not  to  know  that  line  in 
the  table,  but  is  only  a  method  of  beguiling 
a  little  the  time  and  labor  required  for  learn- 
ing it. 

Indeed,  I  am  not  certain  that  the  plan 
which  Juno  thus  adopted,  would  be  the  best 
way  in  all  cases  of  teaching  it,  but  it  was  an 
excellent  way  in  Hubert's  case.  It  led  him  to 
see  that  there  were  curious  things  connected 
with  figures,  and  with  the  various  ways  of 


204  HUBERT. 

combining  them,  and  was  the  commence- 
ment of  the  work  of  displacing  from  his 
mind  the  hatred  of  arithmetic  which  he  had 
been  accustomed  to  feel,  and  awakening  in 
its  stead  something  like  an  embrj-o  interest 
in  the  work  which  it  was  plain  might  in 
time  grow  into  actual  love  for  it. 

In  a  word,  in  the  case  of  a  boy  who  was 
off  the  track,  this  was  an  excellent  way  of 
helping  to  set  him  on  it  again. 

When  at  length  Hubert  had  learned  to 
solve  the  problems  in  long  division,  which 
Juno  set  for  him  on  the  slate,  with  some 
good  degree  of  correctness  and  certainty, 
she  allowed  him  to  take  his  book  of  arith- 
metic and  attempt  to  solve  those  which 
were  given  there.  Of  course,  the  first  of 
those  which  were  put  down  in  the  book 
were  shorter  and  easier  than  many  that  he 
had  already  done.  He  was  agreeably  pleased 


HUBERT   AT   HOME.  205 

to  see  how  easily  he  could  "  do  these  sums," 
and  became  so  much  interested  in  the  work 
that  he  wished  to  take  the  slate  and  arith- 
metic home,  and  do  some  of  them  there. 
Juno  consented  to  this,  so  far  as  to  allow 
him  to  try  four  of  them  at  home.  But  he 
mustn't  on  any  account  attempt  more  than 
four. 

So  Hubert  took  his  book  and  his  slate 
home,  and  that  afternoon  he  went  up  into  his 
room  and  began  his  work  upon  the  four  ex- 
amples given.  He  remained  there  at  his 
work  for  half  an  hour.  At  length,  his  aunt, 
not  hearing  his  voice  about  the  house  or 
yard,  began  to  wonder  where  he  was.  She 
asked  Maria,  but  Maria  said  she  did  not 
know  where  he  was. 

A  few  minutes  afterward  Mrs.  Wood  called 
to  Maria  again,  saying, — 

"  I  wish  you  would  look  about  and  find 
18 


206  HUBERT. 

Hubert.  I  don't  think  he  would  go  away 
without  asking  my  permission,  and  if  he  has 
not  gone  away  he  must  be  in  some  mischief. 
Children  are  almost  always  in  mischief  when 
they  are  still." 

Maria  came  back  a  few  minutes  afterward, 
and  said  that  Herbert  was  up  in  his  room 
ciphering. 

"  Ciphering  !"  repeated  Mrs.  Wood,  in  a 
tone  expressive  of  surprise  and  incredulity. 
"  That's  nonsense  !  I  hope  you  were  not  so 
simple  as  to  suppose  that  he  really  was 
ciphering." 

"  He  seemed  to  be  ciphering,"  said  Maria. 
"  He  had  his  slate  and  his  arithmetic  book." 

Mrs.  Wood  shook  her  head.  "  It  is  only 
some  artfulness  of  his,"  said  she.  "  He  is  in 
some  mischief  you  may  depend,  and  his 
ciphering  is  only  a  pretence, — something  to 
take  up  when  he  hears  anybody  coming. 


MRS.   WOOD'S  SURPRISE.  2O/ 

He  has  got  some  book  that  he  is  reading  by 
stealth,  I  have  no  doubt,  and  when  he  heard 
you  coming  up  stairs  he  hid  it  away.  Or 
he  may  have  secretly  procured  something 
to  eat  which  he  ought  not  to  have.  Go  up 
again  and  see  if  you  cannot  find  out  the 
truth,  and  if  you  cannot,  bring  Hubert  to 
me." 

So  Maria  went  away,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
returned  bringing  Hubert  with  her. 

"  Hubert,  my  dear !"  said  Mrs.  Wood, 
"  what  are  you  doing  up  in  your  room  ?" 

"  I'm  doing  some  sums,"  said  Hubert. 

"Ah,  Hubert!"  said  Mrs.  Wood,  "I'm 
afraid  you  are  trying  to  deceive  me.  It  is  a 
very  wicked  thing  to  practise  deception.  It 
cannot  be  possible  that  you  are  at  work 
upon  arithmetic,  in  your  room,  for  pleasure. 
Think  how  many  times  you  have  told  me 
that  you  hated  arithmetic." 


208  HUBERT. 

"  Not  Juno's  kind,"  said  Hubert. 

"Juno's  kind!"  repeated  his  aunt.  "What 
do  you  mean  by  Juno's  kind  ?  Let  me  go 
and  see." 

So  she  laid  down  her  work  and  went  up 
to  Hubert's  room,  confidently  expecting  to 
find  some  forbidden  book,  or  something  or 
other,  that  was  contraband,  hidden  in  some 
drawer,  or  other  place  of  concealment.  She 
made  a  thorough  search, — looked  into  all 
the  drawers,  and  even  under  the  pillow  of 
the  bed, — but  nothing  was  to  be  found.  At 
last  she  looked  at  the  slate,  and  found 
to  her  surprise  one  side  full  and  the 
other  half  full  of  "  sums,"  all  evidently  in 
Hubert's  hand  ;  and  the  last  one  was  half 
finished. 

She  looked  at  this  work  a  few  minutes  in 
silence,  running  her  eye  along  the  line  as  if 
she  were  trying  to  find  some  mistakes. 


FAULT-FINDING.  2OQ 

"  Did  Juno  say  you  must  do  this  work  ?" 
she  asked. 

"  No,  aunt,"  he  said.  "  I  am  doing  them 
myself.  I  like  to  do  it." 

"  You  don't  make  very  good  sixes,"  said 
his  aunt,  still  looking  at  the  work  upon  the 
slate,  and  apparently  not  noticing  Hubert's 
reply, — "  nor  sevens.  You  must  try  to  make 
all  your  figures  carefully  and  well.  It  is 
very  important  to  make  your  figures  cor- 
rectly from  the  first,  for  if  you  make  them 
badly,  you  get  into  bad  habits  which  you 
afterward  have  all  to  unlearn." 

That  evening  Mrs.  Wood  told  her  hus- 
band, Hubert's  uncle,  that  she  really  be- 
lieved that  Juno  had  succeeded  in  making 
Hubert  like  arithmetic. 

"  I  should  not  have  believed  it  possible," 
said  she.  "  There  was  nothing  that  he 
seemed  to  hate  so  intensely.  She  has  al- 
18* 


210  HUBERT. 

most  worked  a  miracle.  Indeed,  if  she  had 
lived  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  were  not 
so  young  and  good-looking,  I  don't  know 
but  that  she  would  have  been  in  danger  of 
being  burnt  for  a  witch." 

She  laughed  at  this  joke,  but  then  in  a 
moment  renewed  her  serious  air,  and  added, 

"  However,  I  would  not  tell  her  so  for  the 
world.  It  would  make  her  vain.  But  I 
think  she  is  really  quite  a  nice  person,  and 
deserves  encouragement.  I  intend  to  go 
and  see  her  school  some  day.  I  shall  be 
able  to  give  her  some  advice  about  manag- 
ing young  persons,  which  will  be  of  service 
to  her." 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 
Juno's    Ideas. 

"TOURING  the  time  that  Hubert  had 
thus  been  coming  every  day  to  Juno's 
school,  and  had  been  making  so  good  a  be- 
ginning in  arithmetic,  a  fortnight  had  passed 
away.  At  first  Hubert  only  remained  in  the 
school  during  the  half  hour  for  arithmetic, 
but  he  soon  began  to  stay  a  little  longer,  in 
order  to  look  over  Georgie  while  at  work 
on  his  journal.  At  length,  he  one  day  said 
to  Juno  that  he  wished  that  he  could  have 
a  journal  too. 

Juno  was  pleased  to  hear  this,  but  she  was 
not  prepared  to  reply,  as  she  did  not  feel 

(an) 


212  HUBERT. 

authorized  to  make  any  addition  to  the 
amount  of  instruction  that  she  was  giving 
to  Hubert,  without  being  specially  author- 
ized to  do  so.  So  she  said  that  she  would 
think  about  it,  and  speak  with  him  the  next 
day. 

Accordingly,  she  stated  the  case  to  Geor- 
ge's mother.  She  said  to  her  that  Hubert 
ivas  beginning  to  become  interested  in  study, 
and  that,  if  it  was  thought  best,  she  was  per- 
fectly wilting  to  have  him  come  every  day 

<•          • 

to  the  house,  and  spend  the  whole  two  hours 
which  were  devoted  to  Georgie's  studies, 
and  thus  go  on  in  company  with  Georgie  as 
his  fellow  student.  Indeed,  in  some  things 
she  said  he  could  be  his  class-mate.  Geor- 
gie's mother  said  that  she  would  consider 
the  subject,  and  speak  to  Mrs.  Wood  about 
it. 

The  result  of  the  consultations  that  en- 


HUBERT  A  REGULAR  SCHOLAR.    213 

sued  was  that  it  was  decided  that  Hubert 
should  become  one  of  Juno's  regular  schol- 
ars, and  accordingly  when  Hubert  came  to 
school  on  the  following  day,  he  found  that 
Juno  had  provided  a  book  for  a  journal  for 
him,  and  a  table  with  a  drawer  in  it  for  his 
books  and  materials,  so  that  he  might  begin 
at  once  as  a  regular  scholar. 

Hubert  was  greatly  interested  in  com- 
mencing his  journal.  As  has  already  been 
said,  Juno's  plan  was  to  admit  a  great  va- 
riety of  articles  in  these  books.  Anything, 
in  fact,  was  admissible,  provided  it  was  in- 
teresting, amusing  or  instructive,  and  also 
short.  This  last  was  essential,  as  it  was  very 
important  while  a  boy's  handwriting  was  in 
process  of  being  formed,  that  he  should  do 
no  hasty  or  careless  work  ;  and  if  ,  a  boy 
undertakes  to  transcribe  a  long  article  of 
any  kind,  he  is  very  likely  to  become  weary 


214  HUBERT. 

of  it  before  it  is  finished,  and  so  grow  care- 
less in  his  writing  in  his  haste  to  get  it  done. 

Among  other  things  that  were  often  put 
into  the  journals  were  texts  of  Scripture. 
And  as  Juno  often  gave  the  boys  facts  in 
natural  history,  or  science,  or  philosophy, 
and  always  in  such  cases  took  care  to  ex- 
plain them  fully  before  the  boys  copied  them 
into  their  books,  it  was  very  natural  that  she 
should  also  explain  the  texts  in  the  same 
manner. 

She  had  thus  two  reasons  for  giving  the 
boys  texts  to  write  in  their  books ;  for  not 
only  did  the  writing  of  them  slowly  and 
carefully  tend  to  impress  the  precepts  and 
principles  on  their  minds,  but  it  also  gave 
her  excellent  opportunities  of  giving  them 
religious  instruction  of  her  own,  in  the  ex- 
planations which  she  made  of  them.  The 
boys  listened  much  more  willingly,  and  were 


THE   MOTTO.  215 

much  more  ready  to  receive  what  she  said, 
when  the  instructions  which  she  gave  them 
were  in  the  form  of  explanations  of  the  texts 
which  they  were  to  write  in  their  journals, 
than  if  she  had  offered  them  as  direct  per- 
sonal exhortations  to  them. 

Accordingly,  when  Hubert  asked  Juno 
what  she  thought  it  would  be  best  for  him 

to   put  first    into   his    journal,   she   recom- 

«. 
mended  a  text  as  the  best  thing  to  begin  with. 

"  It  will  be  a  kind  of  motto  for  you,"  she 
said.  "  They  often  put  mottoes  in  the  be- 
ginning of  books." 

Hubert  was  pleased  with  this  idea,  if  Juno 
would  choose  him  a  text.  So  she  chose  the 
song  of  the  angels  which  the  shepherds  heard, 
announcing  the  coming  of  the  Saviour : 

"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest ;  on  earth 
peace  and  good  will  to  man." 


2l6  HUBERT. 

She  opened  to  the  account  in  Luke,  and 
read  the  passage  there  to  the  boys  in  such 
a  manner,  as  to  bring  vividly  before  their 
minds  the  scene  as  it  is  there  described  ;  and 
then  explained  to  Hubert  what  an  excellent 
motto  he  had  for  his  book,  one  which  com- 
prised in  a  few  words  a  complete  summary 
of  religious  duty. 

"  There  are  not  a  great  many  words  in  it," 

IT 

said  Juno,  "  and  it  will  not  take  you  long  to 
write  it ;  but  in  those  few  words  the  angels 
expressed  the  whole  duty  which  our  Sa- 
viour came  into  the  world  to  teach  to  men. 
They  were  to  give  glory  to  God  by  doing 
everything  that  He  should  command  them, 
and  by  receiving  thankfully  every  good,  and 
submitting  patiently  to  every  evil  that  He 
should  send.  They  were  to  be  just  and 
honest  in  all  their  dealings  with  each  other, 
so  as  to  live  in  peace  without  any  quarrel- 


CHANGE   OF   HEART.  2 \"J 

ing ;  and  they  were  to  show  good  will  and 
kindness  to  all  their  fellow-creatures,  so  as 
to  give  pleasure  to  everybody  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, instead  of  pain.  What  a  happy  world 
it  would  be  if  all  the  people  in  it  would  act 
according  to  your  motto  !" 

This  was,  in  fact,  the  whole  substance  of 
Christian  duty  according  to  Juno's  ideas ; 
namely,  to  have  a  heart  of  entire  submission 
to  the  will  of  God,  and  cordial  good  will 
and  kind  feeling  toward  every  human  being. 
To  attain  to  this  state  she  was  well  aware  re- 
quired a  great  change  from  the  natural  condi- 
tion of  the  heart,  for  she  knew  very  well  that 
if  a  hundred  boys  and  girls  that  had  never 
received  any  moral  or  religious  instruction, 
were  to  be  put  together  into  a  paradise 
even,  and  nothing  at  all  were  done  for  them, 
except  to  place  at  hand  plenty  of  food  and 
clothing  for  them  to  take,  and  nothing  to 
19 


2l8  HUBERT. 

restrain  their  selfish  and  passionate  propen- 
sities except  what  their  own  unassisted  na- 
tures furnished,  they  would  soon  get  in- 
volved in  quarrels  and  disputes  which  would 
lead,  as  they  grew  older  and  stronger,  to  the 
most  desperate  and  terrible  affrays. 

And  even  under  the  ordinary  circum- 
stances in  which  children  are  brought  up  in 
a  Christian  land,  she  knew  that  just  so  far  as 
they  were  neglected  and  left  to  the  influence 
and  control  of  their  natural  propensities  they 
became  wilful,  selfish  and  passionate,  and 
much  more  eager  to  secure  good  for  them- 
selves than  to  promote  the  comfort  and  hap- 
piness of  others.  Thus  she  knew  that  a 
change  was  necessary  to  bring  the  child  into 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  as  described  in  Hu- 
bert's motto  ;  and  this  change  was  very  pro- 
perly called  a  change  of  heart.  She  knew, 
too,  that  this  change  was  effected  by  the 


THE   POWER   OF   GOD.  2 19 

power  of  God,  and  could  be  effected  in  no 
other  way.  But  then  she  knew,  too,  that 
the  change  in  the  condition  of  a  seed  put 
into  the  ground,  when  it  began  to  vegetate, 
was  produced  by  the  power  of  God,  and 
she  had  no  clear  idea  of  any  difference  in 
the  nature  or  degree  of  her  dependence  on 
divine  power,  in  her  efforts  to  change  a 
child's  heart,  and  to  make  seeds  grow  in 
her  garden. 

Indeed,  she  did  not  try  much  to  find  any 
difference.  All  the  religious  books  which 
she  read  taught  her  that  the  spirit  of  God 
in  changing  the  heart,  worked  through  the 
medium  of  means  adapted  to  the  end,  just  as 
the  divine  power,  in  another  form,  in  caus-r 
ing  plants  to  grow  in  a  garden,  acted  always 
in  conformity  with  the  means  adapted  to  the 
end  that  were  employed  by  the  gardener. 
So  she  thought  that  all  she  had  to  do  in  pro. 


220  HUBERT. 

moting  the  change  of  heart  in  children,  was 
to  use  the  means  which  she  judged  best 
adapted  to  the  end,  looking  to  God  for  His 
blessing  on  her  efforts,  just  as  the  farmer 
should  look  to  God  for  his  blessing  and  his 
help  in  the  growing  of  his  seed. 

It  seemed  to  her,  as  indeed  it  must  to 
everybody  who  looks  at  the  subject  in  its 
true  light,  that  for  her  to  use  injudicious  or 
inopportune  means,  and  then,  in  her  heart, 
throw  off  the  responsibility  upon  God  to 
make  them  effectual,  was  as  unreasonable 
as  for  a  farmer  to  put  his  seed  in,  any  how, 
into  the  ground,  and  then  depend  on  the 
power  of  God  to  make  it  come  up  right. 

Selfish,  passionate  and  quarrelsome  as 
children  often  were,  Juno  had  no  more 
doubt  that  there  was  in  .them  something 
that  made  it  possible  for  them  to  be  formed 
to  habits  of  gentleness,  kindness  And  Jove, 


CAPACITY   FOR   RIGHT   FEELING.        221 

than  she  had  that  there  was  something  in 
the  seed  which  made  it  possible  for  it  to 
sprout  and  grow,  though  the  intervention  of 
divine  power  she  felt  was  equally  necessary 
in  the  two  cases.  In  some  of  the  books  that 
she  read  this,  possibility  was  called  a  capac- 
ity for  right  feeling  and  action,  which  the 
divine  power  was  to  call  into  exercise ;  in 
others  it  was  called  a  germ,  which  by  divine 
power  was  to  be  vivified  into  life.  She  did 
not  know,  however,  whether  it  was  a  capac- 
ity or  a  germ.  In  fact,  I  doubt  if  she  knew 
what  the  difference  was  between  a  capacity 
and  a  germ,  in  relation  to  the  human  heart, 
or  whether  there  was  any  difference.  All 
that  she  thought  of  was  that  her  duty  was 
plain  ;  namely,  to  do  all  she  could  to  awaken 
right  feelings  and  instil  right  principles  in  the 
hearts  of  children,  by  such  means  as  seemed 

best  to  her,  relying,  however,  all   the  time, 
19* 


222  HUBERT. 

as  she  did  in  the  case  of  the  seeds  planted 
in  her  garden,  on  divine  goodness  and  power 
for  her  ultimate  success.  And,  in  order  that 
her  means  should  be  adapted  to  the  end,  it 
was  her  duty  to  study  the  characteristics  of 
children,  and  exercise  all  her  ingenuity  and 
tact  in  learning  how  to  gain  an  influence 
over  them,  and  to  lead  them  in  the  way  in 
which  she  wished  them  to  go ;  not  merely 
to  do  as  she  wished  them  to  do,  but  to  feel 
as  they  ought  to  feel. 

Hubert  took  great  pains  in  writing  his 
motto  in  his  journal.  He  began  about  the 
middle  of  the  page,  having  put  the  word 
JOURNAL  above,  where  the  title  comes  in 
the  beginning  of  a  book.  He  also  put, 
under  the  word  journal,  the  date,  recording 
thus  the  day  and  year  when  his  journal  was 
commenced.  He  wrote  the  word,  MOTTO, 
too,  over  the  text,  in  the  form  of  a  caption. 


A   PRACTICAL   LESSON.  223 

Juno  had  an  opportunity  the  very  next 
day  to  give  Hubert  a  practical  lesson  on  the 
third  part  of  the  motto  ;  namely,  that  which 
relates  to  the  spirit  of  good  will  to  man. 
But  this  will  be  related  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

The   New    Wheel. 

"TTTHILE  Hubert  and  Georgie  were 
talking  together,  a  few  minutes  be- 
fore the  time  for  commencing  their  studies 
arrived, — Juno  sitting  as  usual  at  her  work, 
in  a  large  bay  window  which  there  was  in 
the  room, — Hubert  said  to  Georgie, — 

"  When  I  was  coming  along  the  road  this 
morning,  that  little  imp  of  a  Pompling  came 
out  and  threw  stones  at  me." 

"  What  did  you  do  ?"  asked  Georgie. 

"  Oh,  I  chased  him  into  his  yard,"  said 
Hubert. 


\ 

THROWING   STONES.  22$ 

"  Did  he  hit  you  with  a  stone  ?"  asked 
Georgie. 

"  No,"  replied  Hubert,  "  I  would  have 
taken  his  skin  off  if  he  had  hit  me.  But  he 
would  not  have  dared  to  do  such  a  thing." 

"  Then,"  said  Juno,  "  you  don't  think  he 
really  meant  to  hit  you,  I  suppose."  * 

"  No,"  replied  Hubert.  "  He  only  did  it 
to  make  believe.  But  he  is  an  ugly  little 
fellow." 

Juno  said  no  more.  If  she  had  thought 
that  the  main  thing  to  be  done  was  to  pre- 
vent Hubert  from  speaking  in  that  manner 
of  such  a  boy  as  Pompling,  she  would  have 
reproved  him  at  once  for  saying  what  he 
did  ;  but  that  was  not  the  main  thing.  That 
would  be  something,  it  is  true.  But  the 
main  thing  was  to  change  his  feelings  to- 
ward the  child.  She  did  not  at  once  decide 
what  she  could  do  to  make  the  change  in 


226  HUBERT. 

his  feelings,  but  she  was  satisfied  that  re- 
proving him  for  what  he  said  would  not  be 
the  best  way. 

So  she  said  nothing  at  the  time,  but  all 
lowed  the  subject  to  drop. 

A  few  days  after  this  Hubert  and  Geor- 
gii  asked  Juno  to  go  up  into  their  shop  to 
see  the  bench  which  they  had  made.  She 
accordingly  went  with  them.  The  bench 
was,  indeed,  a  very  good  one,  entirely  suf- 
ficient for  their  purpose,  although  in  mak- 
ing it  they  had  no  tools  except  a  saw,  a 
hammer  and  nails.  It  is  true,  that  the 
boards  of  which  they  made  it  were  already 
planed  at  the  mill,  and  as  for  the  legs  they 
did  not  need  planing.  Juno  thought  that 
the  bench  was  a  very  good  bench,  indeed. 

"  It  proves,"  said  Georgie, "  that  we  know 
how  to  use  a  saw,  and  so  now  we  are  enti- 
tled to  another  tool." 


A   NEW   WHEEL   FOR   POMPLINGr        22/ 

"Yes,"  said  Juno,  "you  are.  And  what 
tool  will  you  have  for  your  next  one  ?" 

"  What  would  you  have  ?"  asked  Georgie, 
turning  to  Hubert. 

"  I  hardly  know  yet,"  said  Hubert.  "  It 
depends  on  what  we  are  going  to  make 
next." 

"  I'll  tell  you  an  excellent  thing  to  make," ' 
said  Juno.  "  I  was  at  Pompling's  the  other 
day,  and  he  was  drawing  his  little  sister 
about  on  a  kind  of  wagon,  but  one  of  the 
wheels  was  gone.  If  you  could  only  make 
him  a  new  wheel,  it  would  please  the  little 
fellow  very  much." 

Hubert  looked  rather  serious  on  hearing 
this  suggestion. 

"  It  is  kind  in  him,"  continued  Juno,  "  to 
draw  his  little  sister  about,  and  it  would 
please  him  so  much  to  have  a  new  wheel." 

"  I  suppose,"  continued  Juno,  after  a  mo- 


228  HUBERT. 

ment's  pause,  "  that  he  has  not  any  money 
to  pay  a  carpenter  to  make  him  a  new 
wheel.  Some  of  the  boys  might,  perhaps, 
do  it  for  him  if  they  were  good-natured, — 
but  it  is  not  everybody  that  knows  how  to 
do  such  a  thing." 

"  I'll  make  him  a  wheel,"  said  Hubert, — 
suddenly  looking  up.  "  At  least,  I'll  try." 

"  Only," — he  added,  after  a  moment's  re- 
flection, "  we  have  n't  got  the  tools  I  should 
need." 

"  What  tools  would  you  need  ?"  asked 
Juno. 

"  We  should  need  first  a  key-hole  saw  to 
saw  the  wheel  out  with,"  said  Hubert,  "and 
a  vice  to  our  bench  to  hold  the  board  while 
we  are  sawing  it,  and  a  small  auger  to  bore 
the  hole  in  the  middle, — and  then  he  added, 
I  ought  to  have  a  pair  of  compasses  to  mark 
out  the  round." 


MAKING   THE   WHEEL.  229 

After  some  farther  reflection,  however, 
Hubert  concluded  that  it  might  be  possible 
to  make  the  wheel  without  all  those  things, 
He  might  describe  the  circle,  he  said,  with 
Georgie's  dividers ;  for  Georgie  had  a  pair 
of  dividers  in  his  desk.  Then  he  could  saw 
off  corners  on  every  side,  with  a  common 
saw,  and  in  that  way  make  the  piece  nearly 
round,  and  then  finish  it  with  a  chisel.  As 
for  the  hole,  he  thought  that  he  could 
burn  that  out  with  a  hot  iron, — provided 
he  could  find  a  piece  of  iron  that  would 
do. 

"  Only,"  said  he,  "  I  must  know  exactly 
the  size  of  the  wheel." 

Juno  said  that  she  could  give  him  the  size 
of  the  wheel,  for  when  she  saw  that  one  of 
Pompling's  wheels  was  gone,  she  hoped  to 
find  some  way  of  replacing  it,  and  so  she 
took  the  measure  of  the  mate  of  it.  She 

20 


230  HUBERT. 

added,  moreover,  that  Hubert  did  her  a 
great  favor  by  being  so  willing  to  undertake 
the  work. 

Hubert  succeeded  very  well,  on  the  whole, 
in  making  his  wheel.  He  described  a  circle 
of  the  right  size,  near  the  end  of  a  narrow 
strip  of  planed  board — the  width  of  the  strip 
being  about  equal  to  the  diameter  of  the 
wheel.  Then  he  sawed  off  the  piece  thus 
marked  out,  and  afterward  sawed  off  the 
corners,  all  around,  close  to  the  circle  which 
he  had  drawn.  There  were  still,  however,  a 
number  of  angles  left, — where  the  wood  pro- 
jected beyond  the  line.  These  he  afterward 
trimmed  off  with  his  chisel,  which  in  the 
meantime  had  been  bought  for  their  next 
tool,  and  which  the  boys  had  ground  and 
sharpened. 

Hubert  cut  these  projecting  angles  off  by 
placing  his  wheel  upon  the  bench, — with  a 


MAKING   THE    WHEEL.  23! 

small  piece  of  board  under  it  to  prevent 
marring  the  wood  of  the  bench  with  the 
chisel, — and  then  crowding  the  chisel  hard 
down  into  the  wood,  by  pressing  upon  from 
above. 

The  work  of  burning  out  the  hole  in  the 
centre,  caused  him  some  trouble,  but  he  at 
.length  succeeded  in  accomplishing  it.  The 
boys  found  an  iron  rod,  among  the  old  iron 
in  the  barn,  which  they  thought  would  an- 
swer the  purpose  for  a  burner  very  well ; 
and  Georgie's  idea  was  that  they  could  heat 
the  iron  in  the  kitchen  fire.  But  Hubert 
said  that  this  would  not  do,  for  the  smoke 
from  the  burning  wood  would  fill  the  kitchen 
and  make  an  unpleasant  smell.  Accordingly 
the  boys  went  out  to  a  piece  of  pasture 
ground  which  was  not  far  from  the  house, 
at  a  place  where  there  were  plenty  of  sticks 
lying  around,  and  there  they  built  a  lire  in 


232  HUBERT. 

which  they  could  heat  their  iron  and  burn 
out  the  hole. 

By  this  plan,  the  boys  not  only  succeeded 
well  in  accomplishing  their  object  in  respect 
to  the  work,  but  they  also  amused  them- 
selves a  great  deal  in  playing  about  their 
fire. 

When  the  wheel  was  finished  the  boys 
took  it  to  Juno,  to  see  whether  it  was  right. 
She  said  it  was  a  very  good  wheel,  and  on 
applying  her  measure  to  it, — which  was  a 
slender  strip  of  paper,  with  a  mark  near  one 
end  of  it  denoting  the  breadth  of  the  hole, — 
she  found  it  to  be  of  the  right  size,  both  in 
respect  to  the  wheel  and  to  the  hole. 

Hubert  had  been  intending  to  leave  the 
wheel  with  Juno,  in  order  that  she  might 
carry  it  to  Pompling.  But  Juno  said  that 
it  would  be  much  better  for  Hubert  to  take 
it  there  himself,  on  his  way  home. 


FITTING   IT   ON.  233 

'  It  is  you,"  she  said,  "  that  have  taken  all 
the  trouble  to  make  the  wheel,  and  you 
must  see  how  pleased  Pompling  will  look, 
when  he  gets  it." 

"  But  suppose  when  he  sees  you  coming," 
said  Georgie,  "  and  does  not  know  that  you 
are  bringing  him  a  wheel,  he  begins  to 
throw  stones  at  you." 

"  Then,"  said  Hubert,  throwing  himself 
into  a  threatening  attitude,  and  looking 
very  fierce,  —  "I'll  shie  the  wheel  at  his 
head." 

"  Oh,  no  !"  said  Juno.  "  I  would  not  do 
that.  Walk  right  on,  without  paying  any 
attention  to  his  stones,  and  tell  him  you 
hav7e  got  a  wheel  for  his  wagon,  and  you 
will  see  how  ashamed  he  will  look  when  he 
sees  you  fitting  it  on." 

"  There  now  !"  exclaimed  Hubert  sud- 
denly, "  I  forgot  about  the  linch-pin.  There 
20* 


234  HUBERT. 

must  be  a  linch-pin.  What  kind  of  linch- 
pins were  they,  in  his  wagon  ?  Were  they 
nails,  or  what  ?" 

"  1  don't  know,"  said  Juno.  "  I  did  not 
think  anything  about  the  linch-pins." 

"  I'll  bet  you  a  big  apple,"  said  Hubert, 
turning  to  Georgie,  "  that  they  were  wooden 
pegs,  and  that  one  of  them  got  weak  and 
broke,  and  that's  the  way  the  wheel  was 
lost." 

"  Or  else,"  he  added,  after  a  moment's 
thought,  "  he  had  good  linch-pins,  and  lost 
one  of  them,  and  so  put  in  some  little  stick 
or  other,  and  that  broke,  and  the  wheel 
came  off,  and  got  lost  in  that  way.  He 
ought  to  have  pieces  of  good  stout  iron- 
wire  and  washers" 

"  You  can  show  him,"  said  Juno,  "  exactly 
how  he  ought  to  do  it." 

Hubert  concluded  to  adopt  Juno's  propo- 


THE   WHEEL   TAKEN    HOME.  235 

sal  that  he  should  take  the  wheel  himself  to 
Pompling  on  his  way  home.  When  he  ar- 
rived near  the  house  he  saw  Pompling  on 
the  gate.  He  was  resting  his  feet  upon  the 
lower  bar,  and  with  his  arms  folded  was 
leaning  upon  the  upper  one.  He  had 
been  in  this  position  some  time — amusing 
himself  in  observing  the  people  who  passed 
by. 

When  he  saw  Hubert  coming  he  jumped 
off  the  gate,  and  retreated  a  few  steps,  as  if 
he  expected  an  attack.  Hubert  held  up  the 
wheel,  and  said, — 

"  See,  I've  got  a  wheel  for  your  wagon." 

Pompling  seemed  to  be  re-assured  by  this 
announcement,  and  came  forward  again. 
He  opened  the  gate  a  little  way,  and  looked 
out. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  he.  "  Juno  made  it  for 
me." 


236  HUBERT. 

"  No,"  replied  Hubert.  "  Juno  could  not 
make  such  a  thing." 

"  Then  she  got  it  made  for  me,"  said 
Pompling. 

"  No,"  replied  Hubert,  "  I  made  it  myself. 
Juno  told  me  about  it,  but  Georgie  and  I 
made  the  wheel  for  you." 

Pompling  stared  at  Hubert,  and  seemed 
bewildered.  He  did  not  appear  to  know 
what  to  make  of  the  affair.  In  a  moment, 
however,  he  turned  and  ran  up  the  path  and 
disappeared  round  the  corner  of  the  house. 
He  very  soon  returned,  pulling  his  wagon 
after  him — one  corner  of  the  board  as  usual 
dragging  on  the  ground. 

Hubert  put  the  wheel  upon  the  axle-tree, 
and  then  put  in,  for  a  linch-pin,  a  short  piece 
of  stout  iron-wire,  which  he  brought  for  the 
purpose,  having  first  put  on  a  washer  which 
he  had  cut  out  from  the  leather  of  an  old 


POMPLTNG   DELIGHTED.  237 

shoe,  and  brought  with  him.  The  washer, 
of  course,  came  between  the  linch-pin  and 
the  wheel. 

Pompling  all  the  while  looked  on,  motion- 
less and  speechless.  When  at  length  the 
work  was  done,  and  the  wagon  was  ready, 
and  Hubert  put  the  pole  by  which  it  was  to 
be  drawn,  into  his  hands,  and  he  found,  on 
drawing  it  along  a  little  way,  that  the  new 
wheel  would  turn,  and  that  his  wagon  was 
complete,  he  seemed  greatly  delighted,  and 
without  saying  a  word,  ran  off  with  it, 
and  disappeared  behind  the  corner. 

Hubert  waited  a  few  minutes  to  see  wheth- 
er he  would  come  back.  But  he  did  not 
come.  He  had  gone  into  the  house  to  show 
his  mended  wagon  to  his  mother,  and  ask 
her  to  get  the  baby  ready  to  go  and  take  a 
ride  upon  it, — and  this  his  mother  was  do- 
ing, while  Pompling  was  waiting.  He  had 


238  HUBERT. 

forgotten  all  about  Hubert,  whom  he  had 
left  in  the  yard.  After  waiting  a  reasonable 

time,  Hubert  gave  up  expecting  his  return, 
i 

and  went  home",  saying,  as  he  walked,  some- 
what disappointed,  away,  "  He  does  not 
even  thank  me." 

The  next  day  Juno  asked  him  whether  he 
gave  Pompling  his  wheel.  He  said  he  did 
and  that  he  fitted  it  on  for  him. 

"  And  what  did  he  say  ?"  asked  Juno. 

"  He  did  not  say  anything,"  replied  Hu- 
bert. 

"  Not  anything  ?"  repeated  Juno. 

"  Not  a  single  word,"  said  Hubert.  "  He 
ran  off  as  far  as  he  could  go." 

"  What,  without  his  wagon?"  asked  Juno. 

"  Oh,  no,"  replied  Hubert.  "  He  took  his 
wagon  with  him." 

Juno  laughed. 

"  He  ought  at  least  to  have  thanked  you," 


DOING   GOOD.  239 

said  Juno.  "  But  he  is  such  a  little  fellow, 
we  must  not  expect  much  from  him.  Be- 
sides, we  must  not  do  good  for  the  sake  of 
the  thanks  we  get  for  it, — but  for  the  sake 
of  having  the  good  done.  You  have  made 
him  a  wheel,  and  he  will  be  very  happy  no 
doubt  in  drawing  his  little  sister  about  on 
his  wagon,  now  that  it  is  all  right ;  and  she 
will  be  happy,  tpo,  in  finding  that  it  goes  so 
much  better,  and  that  she  does  not  have  to 
hold  on  so  hard  to  the  board  with  her  little 
hands  ;  and  their  mother  will  be  happy  to 
see  her  children  pleased,  and  to  find  that 
now  they  have  got  a  good  wagon,  they  will 
play  with  it  more,  and  she  will  have  more 
time  to  do  her  work.  So  you  see,  you  have 
made  a  great  deal  of  happiness,  and  that  is 
the  main  thing.  It  is  of  very  little  conse- 
quence whether  you  get  thanks  for  it  or 
riot." 


240  HUBERT. 

"  I  think  he  might,  at  least,  have  been 
civil  enough  to  thank  me,"  said  Hubert. 

"  Certainly,"  said  Juno  "  He  ought  to 
have  done  it.  But  that's  the  way  with  do- 
ing good.  Half  the  time  we-  don't  get  any 
credit  for  it,  and  if  we  do  good  for  the  sake 
of  the  thanks  we  are  to  get,  we  shall  soon 
grow  discouraged,  and  give  it  up.  But  if 

we  do  good  for  the  sake  of  the  happiness 

* 

we  occasion,  then  we  shall  be  satisfied  with- 
out the  thanks,  and  go  on.  You  have  suc- 
ceeded in  producing  a  great  deal  of  happi- 
ness by  making  that  wheel  for  Pompling : 
and  if  I  were  you,  I  would  go  on  and 
make  him  some  washers  for  his  other 
wheels." 

Hubert  paused  a  moment,  and  then 
said, — 

"  Well,  I  will.  I  don't  care  about  the 
thanks,  after  all." 


THANKS   IN   THE   END.  24! 

He,  however,  in  the  end  received  the 
thanks,  although  he  said  he  did  not  care 
about  them.  For,  a  few  days  afterward  he 
went  with  the  three  other  washers,  to  com- 
plete the  set,  and  put  them  on  the  wheels  ; 
and  then  he  put  the  pole  into  Pompling's 
hands,  in  order  that  he  might  see  how  much 
more  smoothly  and  easily  the  wheels  moved ; 
and  Pompling  after  moving  the  wagon  to 
and  fro  a  few  times  to  try  it,  ran  off  with  it 
around  the  corner,  just  as  he  had  done  be- 
fore. Hubert  then  passed  out  through  the 
gate  and  went  down  the  road  toward  home. 
He  had  not  gone  very  far,  however,  before 
he  heard  a  voice  behind  calling  out  to 
him, — 

"  Halloo  !  You  fellow  !  What  made  my 
wheel !" 

Hubert  turned  round,,  and  saw  Pompling 
perched  on  the  gate  holding  on  with  his 
21 


242  HUBERT. 

two  hands,  and  calling  out  aloud.  "  I'm 
much  obliged  to  you  !  I  thank  you  !  I'm 
very  much  obliged  to  you  !" 

He  kept  calling  out  in  this  way  for  some 
time. 

When  Hubert  related  this  circumstance 
to  Juno,  she  said  it  reminded  her  of  one  of 
her  favorite  texts. 

"  Be  not  weary  in  well  doing,  for  in  due 
season  you  shall  reap  if  you  faint  not." 


CHAPTER    XX. 
William   Darricutt. 

r  I  iHE  summer  passed  away  and  the  au- 
tumn came  on.  Hubert  continued  to 
be  Juno's  pupil,  with  Georgie,  and  made 
great  progress  in  his  studies.  He  was  now 
completely  on  the  track,  in  fact,  and  was  go- 
ing on  smoothly  and  well. 

One  day  after  the  boys  had  finished  their 
studies  and  were  playing  about  the  grounds, 
they  found  some  corn  in  the  garden,  which 
Georgie  said  was  big  enough  to  roast,  and 
he  proposed  to  Hubert  that  they  should  go 
into  the  woods  that  afternoon  and  build  a 
fire  and  roast  some  of  it.  Hubert  liked  this 

(243) 


244  HUBERT. 

proposal  very  much,  and  Georgie  went  in 
to  see  Juno  about  it  and  to  obtain  permis- 
sion. 

What  Georgie  called  the  woods,  was  • 
really  a  piece  of  pasture  ground  in  the  rear 
of  his  father's  house,  where  the  boys  often 
went  to  pkty.  In  some  places  the  ground 
was  rocky  and  rough,  and  in  others  there 
were  clumps  of  trees  and  bushes,  enough  to 
justify  calling  the  place  the  woods. 

Georgie  and  Hubert  proposed  their  plan 
to  Juno.  She  made  no  objection.  On  the 
contrary,  she  proposed  that  they  should 
take  some  apples  and  potatoes,  too,  as  well 
as  corn,  so  as  to  have  a  variety  in  their  cook- 
ing. 

Georgie  said  that  he  wished  that  Juno 
could  go,  too,  but  she  said  she  could  not 
leave  her  work  that  afternoon. 

"  But  I  think  that  you  can  go,"  she  said, 


ROASTING   POTATOES.  245 

"  though  I  would  rather  that  you  would  ask 
your  mother,  as  there  are  some  dangers." 

Georgie  wished  to  know  what  the  dan- 
gers were,  but  Juno  said  that  since  she  did 
not  think  they  were  serious  enough  to  pre- 
vent their  going,  it  seemed  hardly  worth 
while  to  talk  about  them.  But  the  boys 
both  wished  to  know  what  danger  she  meant. 

"  One  is,"  said  Juno,  "  that  your  potatoes 
will  get  burned  instead  of  roasted,  for  want 
of  ashes  to  bury  them  up  in." 

"  We  can  get  some  sand,"  said  Hubert. 

"  Perhaps  you  won't  think  of  that,"  said 
Juno ;  "  or,  perhaps  you  can't  find  any  sand. 
I  never  knew  boys  and  girls  to  attempt  to 
roast  potatoes  in  the  woods  without  getting 
them  burnt  to  a  coal." 

"  Never  mind  that,"  said  Georgie ;  "  what 
are  the  other  dangers  ?" 

"  I   don't  suppose,"    said  Juno,  speaking 


246  HUBERT. 

hesitatingly,  and  looking  very  thoughtful  and 
serious,  "  that  there  is  any  particular  danger 
of  bears  or  wolves  in  such  woods  as  these." 

"  Nonsense,  Juno !"  said  Georgie.  "  You 
know  there  is  not  any  such  thing." 

"  Well,  there  is  one  danger  at  least,"  said 
Juno,  "  that  is  very  serious.  Boys,  when 
they  build  fires  in  the  woods,  generally  lay 
their  jackets  down  near  them  in  the  sun, 
where  they  get  quite  warm,  and  then  a 
spark  snaps  out  upon  them,  or  else  the  fire 
creeps  along  to  them  through  the  grass, 
while  they  themselves  are  off  after  more 
fuel ;  and  so  when  they  come  back  they 
find  their  jackets  smoking  with  a  smould- 
ering fire,  and  great  holes  burnt  in  them. 
Once  I  knew  a  boy  who,  when  he  came  to 
take  up  his  jacket  which  he  had  laid  down 
near  his  fire,  found  nothing  left  of  it  but  a 
mass  of  blackened  and  smoking  rags." 


MR.    DARRICUTT.  247 

"  We'll  look  out  for  that,"  said  Georgie, 
turning  to  Hubert.  "  We'll  hang  our  jack- 
ets up  in  the  shade  on  the  branch  of  a  tree, 
a  good  way  from  the  fire." 

"  Perhaps  you  can,"  said  Juno.  "  You 
know  I  said  the  dangers  were  not  serious 
enough  to  prevent  your  going.  So  you  can 
ask  your  mother,  and  see  what  she  says. 
Only  she  is  engaged  with  company  now." 

"  Who  is  it  ?"  asked  Georgie. 

"  It  is  a  Mr.  Darricutt,  I  believe." 

"  Oh  !  William  Darricutt,"  said  George. 
"  I  don't  mind  him.  Let's  go  in  and  ask 
mother." 

So  Georgie  went  into  the  parlor  to  ask 
his  mother.  Hubert  followed  him. 

After  first  paying  his  respects  properly  to 
Mr.  Darricutt,  who  was  a  student  at  home 
during  a  vacation,  he  stated  his  case  to  his 
mother.  He  said  that  he  and  Hubert  had 


248  HUBERT. 

a  plan  of  going  into  the  woods  that  after- 
noon to  build  a  fire  and  roast  some  corn  and 
other  things. 

"  I  have  no  objection  to  your  going  into 
the  woods,"  said  his  mother,  "  but  I  am  not 
so  sure  about  the  fire.  What  do  you  think 
about  it,  William  ?" 

So  saying,  she  turned  to  Mr.  Darricutt. 

"  The  only  danger,"  said  William,  "  would 
be  that  the  fire  might  get  away  from  them. 
The  grass  is  pretty  dry  now,  and  the  fire 
would  run.  It  might  get  into  the  woods 
and  bushes,  and  possibly  do  some  damage." 

There  are  two  seasons  in  the  year  when 
there  is  danger  in  making  fires  in  the  fields, 
especially  near  any  woods  —  in  the  spring 
and  in  the  fall.  There  is  seldom  any  danger 
in  the  summer  or  in  the  winter. 

The  reason  is  that  in  the  summer  the 
ground  is  generally  well  covered  with  green 


FIRE   IN   THE   WOODS.  249 

grass,  which  will  not  burn,  and  in  winter 
with  ice  and  snow.  But  in  the  autumn, 
when  the  herbage  has  ripened  and  become 
dry,  the  fire,  when  it  gets  caught  in  it,  some- 
times runs  along  through  it  very  fast,  espe- 
cially when  there  is  a  breeze.  The  surface 
of  the  ground,  too,  with  all  the.  ripened 
grass  and  fallen  leaves  that  lie  upon  it,  be- 
come heated  by  the  sun,  so  that  everything 
combustible  burns  all  the  more  readily  and 
rapidly. 

One  would  not  suppose  that  there  would 
be  any  danger  in  the  spring,  when  the  ice 
and  snow  have  just  melted  from  the  ground, 
and  when  nothing  has  yet  begun  to  grow. 
But  it  is  this  very  fact  that  nothing  fresh 
and  green  has  yet  appeared  that  constitutes 
the  danger.  The  ground  is  covered  with 
the  dead  vegetation  of  the  preceding  year, 
and  this  is  so  light  and  thin  that  a  few  days 


25O  HUBERT. 

of  warm  sun  make  it  extremely  inflammable. 
A  spark  will  sometimes  kindle  it,  and  the 
flames,  when  fanned  by  a  breeze,  spread, 
sometimes  in  a  constantly  expanding  circle, 
in  a  very  alarming  manner. 

Nor  is  it  easy  to  stop  such  a  fire  by 
any  ordinary  means,  for  it  spreads  over  so 
great  a  surface  that  you  cannot  get  water 
enough  to  put  it  out ;  and  if  you  had  water 
enough  you  could  not  do  much  with  it,  for 
while  you  were  pouring  it  on  in  one  place, 
the  fire  would  be  running  on  fiercely  and 
furiously  in  another.  The  only  way  is  to 
whip  it  out  with  branches  of  evergreen  trees, 
at  the  margin  all  around  where  it  is  advanc- 
ing, and  so  stop  its  progress,  and  then  wait 
to  let  it  take  its  own  time  to  burn  itself 
out  on  the  ground  which  it  has  already 
covered. 

Fires  sometimes  catch  and  spread  in  this 


FIRE   ON   THE   PRAIRIES.  2$  I 

way  on  the  great  grass  prairies  in  the  West, 
and  produce  the  most  extended  conflagra- 
tions. They  are  sometimes  set  purposely 
by  the  Indians,  and  sometimes  they  take  ac- 
cidentally from  some  camp  fire,  or  from  the 
burning  \vad  of  a  hunter's  gun,  or  even  from 
the  spark  of  a  locomotive. 

They  very  often  occur,  too,  in  the  hilly 
and  forest  land  of  the  Eastern  States,  and 
when  they  get  into  the  woods  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  stop  them.  The  fallen  trunks 
and  dead  branches  of  the  trees,  and  the  old 
decayed  roots  and  beds  of  moss,  which  some- 
times get  dried  to  a  considerable  depth  form 
masses  of  fuel  which  kindle  quick  and  burn 
long  and  furiously ;  and  the  wind,  if  there 
is  a  wind,  drives  the  sparks  and  flaming 
fragments  of  decayed  wood  and  bark  on- 
ward through  the  thickets  ;  so  that  while 
the  men  are  trying  to  extinguish  the  fire  at 


252  HUBERT. 

one  point,  it  is  perhaps  rekindling  itself  in 
many  others. 

Such  fires  sometimes  do  incalculable  dam- 
age, and  this  in  many  ways.  So  long  as 
they  merely  run  over  grass  land  they  do  no 
harm.  They  burn  only  the  dried  grass,  and 
the  ashes  of  this  falls  down  and  fertilizes  the 
ground.  But  when  they  got  into  the  woods 
they  kill  all  the  young  and  growing  trees  by 
burning  the  bark  off  round  the  stem,  and 
so  girdling  them. 

If  they  come  to  evergreen  trees  the  flame 
often  catches  in  the  top,  and  sets  all  the 
foliage  in  a  blaze,  forming  a  most  magnifi- 
cent spectacle.  For  the  foliage  of  ever- 
green trees  contains  a  resinous  substance 
which  makes  them  inflammable  even  while 
they  are  green. 

Then,  sometimes,  they  reach  the  fences 
by  which  the  great  pastures  are  enclosed, 


FIRE   AT   HOME.  253 

which  fences  are  often,  especially  in  the 
woods,  made  of  brush,  and  these,  of  course, 
form  lines  of  fire  to  conduct  the  conflagra- 
tion to  the  farmer's  buildings.  It  is  awful,  in 
the  dead  of  night,  to  have  a  fire  coming  thus 
toward  the  home  of  a  family  secluded  in  an 
opening  in  the  woods,  the  air  filled  with 
smoke  and  sparks,  and  illumined  with  a  lurid 
light,  while  there  is  no  possibility  of  arresting 
its  progress,  and  sometimes  with  no  opening 
left  for  the  inmates  to  escape  with  their  lives. 
There  was,  it  was  true,  no  danger  of  such 
a  conflagration  as  this  in  the  pasture  ground 
where  the  boys  proposed  building  their  fire. 
But  the  thought  of  such  conflagrations,  and 
of  the  various  minor  disasters  which  might 
result  from  a  fire  escaping  control  in  the 
open  ground,  led  Mr.  Darricutt  to  hesitate 
in  answering  the  question  which  had  been 
put  to  him. 

22 


254  HUBERT. 

The  boys  began  to  feel  a  little  uneasy 
when  they  found  that  Mr.  Darricutt  was  dis- 
posed to  speak  so  doubtfully  about  their  plan. 

"  Mother,"  said  Georgie,  "  there  is  no  dan- 
ger at  all.  The  fire  could  not  possibly  get 
away  from  us." 

He  spoke  this  in  a  very  decided  tone. 

"  Ah  !"  said  his  mother.  "  That  makes 
me  feel  more  afraid  than  ever  to  let  you  go." 

"  I  don't  wonder  at  that,"  said  Mr.  Darri- 
cut.  "  When  boy s  are  aware  that  there  is 
danger,  they  are  likely  to  be  careful.  When 
they  think  there  is  no  danger,  then  they  are 
apt  to  be  careless  ;  and  still  more  so  when 
they  are  so  sure  that  there  is  no  danger." 

"  But  I'll  tell  you  what  we  will  do,"  con- 
tinued Mr.  Darricutt  turning  to  Georgie's 
mother,  after  a  moment's  pause,  "  I'll  go 
with  the  boys,  if  you  will  trust  them  to  my 
care." 


THE   PLAN   ARRANGED.  255 

"  Good  !"  said  Georgia,  clapping  his  hands. 
"  That  will  be  just  the  thing.  Then  you'll 
feel  perfectly  safe,  mother." 

His  mother  said  she  was  very  unwilling 
to  put  Mr.  Darricutt  to  chat  trouble.  But 
he  said  that  it  would  be  no  trouble  at  all. 
He  would  like  to  go,  he  said.  He  was  en- 
tirely at  leisure  that  afternoon,  and  it  would 
be  a  pleasure  to  him  to  go  into  the  pasture 
and  make  a  fire,  as  he  used  to  in  old  times 
when  he  was  a  boy. 

So  the  plan  was  all  arranged.  The  boys 
and  Mr.  Darricutt  were  to  meet  at  a  certain 
red  gate  at  the  end  of  the  lane,  at  a  quarter 
past  two.  And  the  affair  being  thus  settled, 
the  boys  went  out  to  procure  the  corn,  po- 
tatoes and  apples  which  they  were  going  to 
roast  at  their  fire. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 
Strong  Government. 

rTIHE  boys  were  at  the  red  gate,  which 
was  the  place  appointed  for  the  ren- 
dezvous, a  quarter  of  an  hour  before  the 
time.  They  had  their  stores  of  provisions 
in  a  basket.  Georgie  had  charge  of  the 
basket,  while  Hubert  carried  a  hatchet.  It 
was  a  rule  with  him  never  to  go  into  the 
woods  without  a  hatchet.  In  this  case  the 
hatchet  was  specially  important,  inasmuch 
as  some  instrument  of  the  kind  was  almost 
absolutely  necessary  as  a  means  of  prepar- 
ing the  fuel  for  the  fire. 

Perhaps,  however,  I  ought  not  to  say  ab- 
(256) 


INTERRUPTIONS   TO   READING.          257 

solutely  necessary,  since  it  is  possible  to 
build  a  fire  with  very  long1  sticks  by  burn- 
ing them  in  two,  as  we  shall  see  presently 
that  the  boys  did  on  this  occasion. 

Mr.  Darricutt  came  promptly  at  the  ap- 
pointed time.  He  had  a  book  in  his  hand. 
The  boys  asked  him  if  he  was  going  to  read. 

"  That  depends,"  said  he,  "  upon  how 
amusing  I  find  your  fire." 

"  Is  it  a  story  book  that  you  have  got  ?" 
asked  Hubert. 

"  No,"  replied  Mr.  Darricutt ;  "  it  is  a 
book  about  chemistry." 

"  I  should  think  it  would  be  a  great  deal 
better  to  bring  a  story  book,  or  something 
entertaining,  when  you  come  out  into  the 
woods  for  play,"  said  Georgie. 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt.  "  Because  I'm 
liable  to  a  great  many  interruptions  at  such 
times,  and  a  tale  of  any  kind  is  the  worst 

22* 


258  HUBERT. 

book  you  can  have  when  you  are  liable  to 
many  interruptions,  on  account  of  there  be- 
ing such  a  close  connection  in  the  parts. 
Being  interrupted  is  a  greater  disturbance 
to  the  mind  when  there  is  a  very  close  and 
continued  connection  in  what  you  are  read- 
ing." 

"  Isn't  there  a  connection  in  your  chemis- 
try?" asked  Georgie. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mr.  Darricutt,  "  but  the 
connection  is  not  so  close.  I  can  read  about 
one  thing  and  then  stop,  and  afterward  read 
about  another." 

"  What  is  chemistry  about,  any  how  ?" 
asked  Hubert. 

"  Ah  !"  rejoined  Mr.  Darricutt.  "  That 
would  be  very  hard  for  me  to  explain  to 
you.  Perhaps  I  may  tell  you  something 
about  it  by  and  by.  But  now  I  must  tell 
you  what  my  plan  is  to  prevent  the  danger 


EXACTLY  AND   IMPLICITLY  259 

of  a  fire  spreading  in  the  grass.  It  is  to 
burn  the  ground  where  you  are  going  to 
have  your  fire,  all  over  in  the  first  place. 
I  am  not  going  to  do  anything  about  it  my- 
self, but  only  to  direct  you.  If  you  obey 
my  orders  exactly  and  implicitly,  we  shall 
get  along  very  well." 

"  I'll  obey  you  exactly"  said  Georgie,  "  but 
as  to  implicitly,  I  don't  know  what  that 
means." 

"  It  means  without  any  hesitation  or  de- 
murring," replied  Mr.  Darricutt. 

"  But  I  don't  know  what  demurring 
means,"  said  Georgie. 

"  Nor  I  either,"  said  Hubert. 

"  It  means  stopping  to  make  objections  or 
to  argue  the  case,"  replied  Mr.  Darricutt. 
As  soon  as  we  get  to  the  ground,  you  may 
first  choose  the  place  where  you  would  like 
to  have  your  fire.  Perhaps  I  shall  see  some 


260  HUBERT. 

reason  why  the  place  will  not  do.  If  so  I 
shall  say  no,  but  without  giving  any  reasons. 
Then  you  will  have  to  look  about  for  an- 
other place." 

"  Or  would  you  rather  I  would  stop  and 
give  the  reasons,"  he  added,  "  and  so  waste 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  talking  about  it." 

<l  No,"  said  Hubert,  speaking  in  an  "under- 
tone to  Georgie. 

"  No,"  repeated  Georgie,  speaking  aloud. 

Georgie  knew  very  well  from  past  expe- 
rience that  William  Darricutt  would  not 
object  to  their  choice  of  a  place,  unless  he 
had  good  reasons  for  it ;  and  that  if  they 
were  to  talk  about  it,  no  matter  how  long, 
it  would  make  no  difference  in  his  decision. 
So  he  was  very  ready  to  adopt  Hubert's 
idea  of  dispensing  with  all  discussion. 

By  this  time  the  party  had  reached  the 
pasture.  They  walked  on  for  some  time, 


PICTURESQUE  AND   BEAUTIFUL.        261 

following  a  narrow  but  pretty  path  which 
had  been  made  by  the  cows,  until  they  came 
to  the  part  of  the  ground  where  the  boys 
intended  to  have  their  fire.  It  was  a  wild 
place,  encumbered,  as  some  persons  might 
say,  though  the  boys  would  have  said,  made 
picturesque  and  beautiful  by  rocks  and  thick- 
ets. 

The  boys  began  at  once  to  look  about  for 
a  place  to  build  a  fire.  They  at  length 
chose  the  surface  of  a  flat  rock  just  on  the 
margin  of  a  dense  thicket.  The  boys  thought 
that  this  would  be  a  very  good  place  for 
their  fire.  The  surface  of  the  rock  was  flat 
and  very  near  the  level  of  the  ground,  and 
would  make,  as  they  thought,  an  excellent 
hearth  for  them.  They  thought,  moreover, 
that  it  would  be  a  very  safe  place,  as  the 
rock  was  so  wide  on  every  side  that  the  fire 
would  not  come  near  the  grass. 


262  HUBERT. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Darricutt  had  turned 
to  one  side  and  had  found  an  excellent  seat 
for  himself  on  a  block  of  stone  in  a  shady 
place.  The  stone  was  near  a  precipice  of 
rock  which  rose  sloping  behind  it,  and 
formed  a  back  for  the  seat,  which  made  it 
very  comfortable. 

As  Mr.  Darricutt  took  his  seat  upon  the 
stone  he  opened  his  book  and  said, — 

"  Now  I'm  going  to  read.  You  may  look 
about  and  choose  your  place.  If  I  approve 
of  it  then  you  can  go  ahead.  If  not,  you 
will  have  to  look  about  you  and  try  again." 

Mr.  Darricutt  said  this  very  good  natur- 
edly  and  quietly,  but  still  in  a  very  decided 
manner,  as  if  it  was  perfectly  understood 
between  them  that  his  will  was  to  be  obeyed 
without  any  hesitation  or  debate. 

Hubert  and  Georgie  did  not  dislike  this 
authoritative  manner  assumed  by  Mr.  Dar- 


"  HERE'S  THE  PLACE."  263 

ricutt  at  all.  Indeed,  they  rather  liked 
it.  They  felt  somewhat  as  if  they  were 
soldiers  under  the  command  of  a  good 
general. 

It  was  only  a  moment  after  this  that  the 
boys,  in  looking  about  the  ground  for  a 
place  for  their  fire,  fell  upon  the  flat  stone 
above  described,  and  decided  in  their  own 
minds,  as  has  already  been  said,  that  that 
would  be  just  the  place  for  them.  So  Geor- 
gie  called  out  to  Mr.  Darricutt, — 

"  William  !"  said  he,  "  look  !  Here's  the 
place." 

Georgie  had  been  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Darricutt  for  many  years,  and  had  formed 
the  habit  of  calling  him  William  when  he 
was  much  younger,  though  now  that  he  had 
grown  to  be  twenty-three  or  four  years  of 
age,  and  was,  moreover,  a  student  in  a  poly- 
technic institution,  after  having  graduated 


264  HUBERT. 

at  college,  he  was  fully  entitled  to  be  ad- 
dressed as  a  man. 

Mr.  Darricutt  raised  his  eyes  from  his 
book,  looked  at  the  place,  paused  long 
enough  to  survey  the  surroundings,  and 
then  shook  his  head. 

"  He  says  no,"  said  Hubert  to  Georgie  in 
an  undertone,  and  seeming  surprised. 

"  Why  not  ?"  asked  Georgie,  speaking 
aloud  to  Mr.  Darricutt.  "  We  couldn't  pos- 
sibly have  a  better  place." 

"  Demurring,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt  quietly. 

He  then  resumed  his  reading,  just  as  if 
the  boys  were  not  there. 

"  It's  of  no  use,"  said  Georgie  ;  "  we  shall 
have  to  find  another  place." 

So,  after  laying  their  basket  of  provisions 
down  upon  the  flat  rock,  they  began  to  look 
about  in  the  neighborhood  for  another  place 
for  their  fire. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

Arrangements. 

f~^\  EORGIE  at  length  discovered  a  place 
under  the  shelter  of  some  huge  rocks 
which  he  was  very  much  pleased  with. 

"  This  will  do  exactly,"  said  Georgie.  "  In 
fact,  it  is  a  better  place  than  the  other  was, 
for  there  are  nice  seats  for  us  on  the  rocks 
all  about." 

But  Hubert  shook  his  head. 

"  No,"  said  he,  "  this  won't  do  at  all, — 
there  is  so  much  dried  grass  and  weeds  all 
about  here.  The  ground  is  all  covered 
with  it." 

This  was  true.  The  precipice  of  rock 
23 


266  HUBERT. 

did,  indeed,  shut  in  the  place  behind,  so  as 
to  prevent  all  danger  of  the  spread  of  fire  in 
that  direction,  but  in  front,  and  on  the  two 
sides,  there  was  a  great  quantity  of  decayed 
and  dried  herbage  covering  the  ground  for 
a  considerable  distance. 

"  If  a  spark  should  catch  in  there,"  said 
Hubert,  pointing  down,  "  it  would  run  like 
wild  fire.  He'll  say  no  to  this  place,  as  sure 
as  you're  alive." 

"  Well,"  rejoined  Georgie,  "  it  will  do  no 
harm  to  ask  him  at  any  rate." 

So  he  called  out  to  Mr.  Darricutt,  and 
pointed  to  the  place  against  the  rocks  where 
they  proposed  to  make  the  fire. 

Mr.  Darricutt  looked  at  it  for  a  moment 
and  then  said,  that  he  would  come  and  see. 

So  he  rose  from  his  seat,  laid  his  book 
down  upon  it,  and  walked  toward  the  spot 
where  Hubert  and  Georgie  were  standing. 


"  DEMURRING."  267 

He  first  looked  at  the  place  where  the  fire 
was  to  be  made,  and  then  surveyed  all  the 
surrounding  ground, — Hubert  and  Georgie 
standing  by  all  the  time  in  silence  and  sus- 
pense, both  confidently  expecting  an  unfav- 
orable decision.  They  were  much  surprised 
to  hear  Mr.  Darricutt  announce  his  conclu- 
sion at  last,  by  saying, — 

"  Yes  ;  this  will  do  very  well.' 

"Why,  Mr.  Darricutt!"  said  Hubert. 
"  There  is  a  great  deal  more  dead  grass  and 
leaves  for  the  fire  to  run  in  about  this  place, 
than  there  was  about  the  other." 

"  Demurring  ;"  said  Georgie. 

"  No,"  rejoined  Mr.  Darricutt.  "  That  is 
not  demurring.  Demurring  is  making  an 
objection  as  an  excuse  for  not  obeying,  or 
as  a  reason  for  changing  the  decision.  But 
Hubert  does  not  state  his  objection  to  have 
the  decision  changed,  I  suppose." 


268  HUBERT. 

"Oh,  no,"  said  Hubert.  "  We  like  this 
place  a  great  deal  better  than  the  other,  but 
we  thought  we  could  not  possibly  have  it." 

"  So  he  states  the  objection  to  it  from 
curiosity,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt,  "and  for  the 
sake  of  information,  which  is  all  right, — and 
not  at  all  as  an  argument  or  an  excuse." 

"  The  truth  is,"  continued  Mr.  Darricutt, 
"  the  other  place  was  dangerous,  on  account 
of  its  being  so  near  the  thicket,  that  we  could 
not  safely  burn  the  ground  over  all  around 
it,  for  you  can't  whip  out  a  fire  in  the  woods 
as  you  can  in  the  open  ground.  And  now 
the  first  thing  is  to  get  your  fire-whips.  I'll 
give  you  all  the  directions  and  then  will  go 
back  to  my  reading." 

Mr.  Darricutt  then  gave  his  orders  as  fol- 
lows :  The  boys  were  to  go  about  among 
the  thickets  till  they  found,  on  the  margin 
of  one  of  them,  a  fir,  or  hemlock,  or  pine, 


THE   FIRE-WHIPS.  269 

with  branches  thick  with  foliage  growing 
,  within  reach  from  the  ground,  and  were  to 
cut  <?ff  six  such  branches  with  the  hatchet. 
When  they  had  procured  these  branches, 
which  Mr.  Darricut  called  the  fire-whips, 
they  were  to  bring  them  to  the  place  where 
the  fire  was  to  be  built. 

"  To  the  camp,"  said  Georgie,  "  we  are 
going  to  call  it  our  camp." 

"  Yes,  to  the  camp,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt. 
"  Lay  two  of  them  down  upon  the  rock,  in 
a  safe  place,  and  keep  the  other  four  with  you. 
Two  apiece  for  each.  Then  you  must  strike 
a  match  and  set  fire  to  the  grass  to  leeward." 

"  To  leeward  ?"  repeated  Georgie.  Geor- 
gie was  not  very  well  acquainted  with  nauti- 
cal terms,  and  did  not  exactly  know  what 
the  phrase  to  leeward  meant,  as  applied  to 
a  piece  of  ground  in  a  pasture,  where  a  fire 
was  going  to  be  built. 
23* 


2/0  HUBERT. 

"That  means,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt,  "the 
side  toward  which  the  wind  blows.  They  call 
it  at  sea  to  leeward.  The  side  from  which  the 
wind  blows  is  the  windward  side.  You  must 
walk  six  paces  to  leeward  from  the  place 
where  your  fire  is  to  be,  which  will  be  the 
centre  of  your  camp,  and  there  make  a  fire 
in  the  grass,  and  watch  it  while  it  burns. 
You  can  set  the  fire  in  several  places  if  you 
please  in  a  line  across  the  direction  of  the 
wind.  The  fires  that  you  set  will  spread  in 
all  directions  until  they  come  together,  and 
then  they  will  tend  to  advance  together 
farther  to  leeward,  but  you  must  not  let 
them  run  in  that  direction.  You  must  whip 
out  the  blazing  grass  all  along  the  line  to 
leeward,  with  your  two  fire-whips,  one  in 
each  hand.  The  fire  will  be  inclined  to 
go  fast  in  that  direction,  because  the  wind 
will  help  it." 


ADVICE  ABOUT  FIRE.  2/1 

"  There  is  not  much  wind,  anyhow,"  said 
Hubert. 

"  True,"  replied  Mr.  Darricutt,  "  but  what 
there  is  will  make  the  flames  advance  much 
faster  to  leeward,  while  they  will,  creep  along 
very  slowly  to  windward.  If  you  find  that 
you  cannot  stop  their  progress  to  leeward 
you  must  cry  '  Fire  !'  and  I'll  come  and  help 
you." 

"  Is  that  what  the  two  extra  fire-whips 
are  for  ?"  asked  Georgie. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Mr.  Darricut,  "  and  you 
must  leave  them  at  "the  camp,  where  I  can 
seize  them  at  once,  in  case  there  should  be 
any  alarm  of  fire." 

Here  Georgie  began  to  caper  about  very 
exultantly,  in  his  excitement.  He  eagerly 
hoped  that  the  flames  would  spread  so  rap- 
idly as  to  give  occasion  for  an  alarm  of 
fire. 


2/2  HUBERT. 

"  After  you  have  entirely  stopped  the  pro- 
gress of  the  fire  to  leeward,"  continued  Mr. 
Darricut,  "  then  all  you  will  have  to  do  is  to 
watch  it  as  it  creeps  along  slowly  to  wind- 
ward, and  at  last,  when  you  judge  that  it 
has  burned  over  a  sufficiently  large  piece  of 
ground,  you  can  easily  stop  it,  by  whipping 
it  out  at  the  edges." 

After  giving  the  boys  these  instructions, 
Mr.  Darricutt  turned  away  and  went  back 
to  his  reading — leaving  them  to  go  on  with 
their  work,  without  the  necessity  of  any 
further  interference  from  him,  unless  some- 
thing should  go  wrong.  They  were  pretty 
sure  to  follow  his  directions  implicitly,  for 
even  Hubert  himself,  though  he  had  never 
seen  Mr.  Darricutt  before  that  day,  and  had 
been  writh  him  then  only  a  very  short  time, 
had  been  already  trained  to  obey  him.  It 
takes  very  little  to  train  a  boy  to  a  habit  of 


STEADY   GOVERNMENT.  2/3 

obedience,  provided  that  little  is  of  the  right 
kind. 

And  it  was  a  great  deal  better  and  more 
satisfactory  to  Hubert  and  Georgie  to  have 
the  person  who  had  charge  of  them  firm, 
decided,  and  even  immovable  in  his  man- 
agement, so  long  as  he  was  deliberate,  con- 
siderate and  just,  than  to  have  him  unde- 
cided and  capricious,  arguing  and  discussing 
questions  with  them,  and  allowing  himself 
to  be  finally  persuaded,  against  his  better 
judgment,  to  yield  a  reluctant  and  moody 
consent  to  their  proposals,  because  he  had 
not  firmness  enough  to  stand  his  ground. 
The  most  agreeable  government  to  be  un- 
der for  everybody,  is  one  that  is  steady, 
decided  and  firm,  provided  that  it  is  con- 
siderate and  just,  —  and  the  most  unsatis- 
factory and  uncomfortable  one,  to  all  con- 
cerned, is  an  authority  that  is  weak  and 


274 


HUBERT. 


vacillating,  because  it  is  hearty, — deciding 
first  without  reflection,  and  then  easily  in- 
duced to  alter  its  decisions  by  arguments 
or  importunity. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 
An  Alarm   of   Fire. 

r  I  iHE  boys  followed  the  directions  which 
Mr.  Darricutt  had  given  them  very 
faithfully.  They  soon  saw  the  reason  for 
his  recommendation  that  they  should  look 
for  evergreen  branches  suitable  for  fire- 
whips,  as  he  called  them,  on  the  margins, 
instead  of  in  the  interiors  of  the  thickets, 
as  the  branches  of  trees  never  grow  thick 
and  full  with  foliage,  except  where  they 
are  open  to  the  sun  and  air.  In  a  dense 
wood  accordingly,  where  everything  ex- 
cept the  very  tops  of  the  trees  is  in  the 
shade,  the  limbs,  if  any  grow,  are  thin, 

(275) 


2/6  HUBERT. 

slender  and  almost  bare,  and  often  nothing 
but  dead  sticks  are  found  branching  out 
from  the  trunk  near  the  ground.  Whereas, 
on  the  margin  of  that  same  wood,  perhaps, 
all  those  limbs  which  branch  off  toward  the 
outside,  where  they  have  free  access  to  the 
sun  and  air,  are  heavy  and  rich  with  foliage, 
sometimes  down  to  within  a  short  distance 
of  the  ground. 

The  boys  in  a  little  time  had  procured  the 
proper  number  of  fire-whips  and  carried 
them  to  the  camp.  The  next  thing  to  do 
was  to  find  out  which  way  the  wind  blew. 
This  was  not  very  easy,  for  there  was  very 
little  wind  in  any  direction.  They  lighted 
a  match  and  tried  to  observe  which  way  the 
smoke  went ;  but  the  indications  obtained 
by  this  means  proved  quite  uncertain,  for  in 
the  first  place  there  was  very  little  smoke 
produced,  and'  in  the  second  place,  that 


THE   BIRCH   BARK.  2/7 

which  did  arise  floated  about  so  deviously — 
partly  on  account  of  the  eddies  produced  in 
the  air  by  the  shelter  afforded  by  their  own 
bodies — and  it  became,  moreover,  so  entirely 
dissipated  before  it  ascended  high  enough 
to  be  out  of  the  influence  of  the  eddies,  that 
they  could  come  to  no  conclusion. 

"  Let  us  get  a  piece  of  birch  bark,"  said 
Georgie.  "  That  will  make  a  good  thick 
smoke." 

"  But  if  we  set  any  birch  bark  on  fire," 
said  Hubert ;  <r-  the  pieces,  all  in  a  blaze,  will 
drop  on  the  ground  and  set  the  grass  on  fire 
in  the  wrong  place." 

"  We  can  be  careful  and  not  let  the  pieces 
fall,"  said  Georgie.  "  And  besides,  William 
won't  blame  us  if  the  grass  gets  on  fire  in 
the  wrong  place  by  accident." 

"  We  had  better  not  trust  to  that,"  said 
Hubert,  "  but  do  exactly  as  he  says." 
24 


2/8  HUBERT. 

After  some  farther  consultation,  however, 
the  boys  concluded  that  by  taking  a  single 
sound  strip  of  birch  bark  and  winding  it 
round  the  end  of  a  long  stick,  and  holding 
it  up  in  the  air  over  a  place  where  there  was 
only  bare  rock,  they  could  safely  make  a 
smoke  which  would  enable  them  to  deter- 
mine which  way  the  wind  was.  So  they 
went  into  the  woods  to  find  a  birch  tree. 
They  soon  succeeded.  Indeed,  they  stripped 
off  several  pieces  of  bark  intending  to  pre- 
serve all  that  they  did  not  need  for  deter- 
mining the  question  of  the  wind-,  to  use  in 
kindling  their  fire. 

The  plan  worked  very  well.  Hubert 
made  a  cleft  in  the  end  of  a  pole  and  in- 
serted one  of  the  sheets  of  birch  bark  in  it. 
They  then  struck  a  light  with  a  match,  and 
set  th6  bark  on  fire.  The  flame  spread 
rapidly  over  it,  and  the  heat,  curling  up  the 


THE   FIRES   LIGHTED.  2/9 

bark,  caused  it  to  cling  more  and  more 
closely  to  the  pole  the  more  fiercely  it 
burned,  so  that  there  was  no  danger  of  its 
falling  to  the  ground.  Besides,  Hubert  took 
pains  to  hold  it  over  a  place  entirely  bare  of 
herbage,  so  that  even  if  fire  had  fallen  from 
it,  no  harm  would  have  been  done. 

The  flaming  bark  sent  up  as  usual  dense 
volumes  of  smoke,  which,  as  they  floated 
away  through  the  air,  showed  very  plainly 
which  way  the  wind  was.  So  the  boys  mea 
sured  off  the  prescribed  distance  by  pacing, 
and  then  prepared  to  set  fire  to  the  grass. 

"  Let  me  have  the  match  and  light  it," 
said  Hubert. 

"  No  ;  let  me,"  rejoined  Georgie. 

It  was  finally  agreed  that  they  should 
each  take  a  match,  and  then,  at  a  given 
signal,  that  both  should  light  a  fire  at  the 
same  time.  They  had  some  difficulty  at 


28O  HUBERT. 

first  in  making  the  fire  catch  in  the  grass. 
It  would  blaze  up  for  a  moment,  and  then 
as  suddenly  all  die  away.  At  length,  how- 
ever, a  little  breeze  sprang  up  and  the  fire 
began  to  spread.  The  boys  then  took  pieces 
of  their  birch  bark,  and  lighting  them  at  the 
fires  already  kindled,  laid  them  down,  all 
dazing,  in  other  places,  until  at  length  they 
had  a  place  several  yards  in  extent  all  in 
flames. 

"  Now,"  said  Georgie,  "  we  must  get  our 
fire-whips  and  stop  it  to  leeward." 

So  he  threw  down  the  remaining  pieces 
of  his  bark  upon  a  stone  near  by,  and  ran 
for  the  fir  branches.  Hubert  followed  his 
example,  and  both  the  boys  began  at  once 
whipping  down  the  fire  along  the  edge  of 
the  burning  grass  to  leeward.  The  breeze, 
however,  either  stimulated  at  that  spot  by 
the  heat  of  the  fire,  or  for  some  other  cause, 


WHIPPING  THE   FIRE.  28 1 

began  to  fan  the  flames  more  and  more,  and 
the  boys  soon  began  to  be  greatly  excited 
with  the  fun  of  trying  to  whip  it  out.  In- 
deed, through  the  pleasure  of  seeing  it  burn- 
ing, and  the  excitement  of  fighting  it,  they 
soon  began  to  get  into  a  great  frolic,  and 
went  on  whipping  at  random  all  about  them, 
first  on  one  side  and  then  on  the  other,  laugh- 
ing immoderately  all  the  time.  They  did 
not  confine  themselves  at  all  to  the  margin 
of  the  fire  to  leeward,  which  was  all  thai 
really  required  any  attention,  but  beat  about 
on  this  side  and  on  that,  wherever  they  saw 
smoke  or  a  blaze. 

This  continued  for  some  time,  and,  of 
course,  all  this  while  the  fire  was  gradually 
extending  in  all  directions,  and  as  the  breeze 
continued  to  rise,  they  began  soon  to  feel 
that  they  must  be  more  in  earnest  if  they 
really  wished  to  prevent  the  fire  from  get- 
24* 


282  HUBERT. 

ting  entirely  away  from  them.  So  they  be- 
gan to  work  more  vigorously,  but  they  were 
still  laughing  so  violently  that  they  could 
not  work  to  much  advantage. 

"  We  can't  stop  it !"  said  Georgie.  "  Look ! 
Look  there  behind  you  !  There's  another 
place  out  there  !  And  here's  another  !  We 
must  cry,  Fire  !" 

So  they  both  began  to  cry,  "  Fire  !"  as 
well  as  they  could  for  laughing,  and  for  the 
violent  exertions  they  were  making  in  beat- 
ing about  among  the  flames  and  embers. 

As  soon  as  he  heard  the  call  from  the 
boys,  Mr.  Darricutt  laid  down  his  book  and 
walked  toward  them,  moving,  however,  in 
his  usual  cool  and  deliberate  manner.  He 
took  one  of  the  two  branches  which  had  been 
reserved  for  him,  and  then  said  to  the 
boys  that  they  might  stand  a  little  on  one 
side,  out  of  the  smoke,  and  rest  them- 


WHIPPING  THE   FIRE.  283 

selves,  while  he  stopped  the   progress   of 
the  fire. 

So  he  went  forward  entirely  in  advance 
of  the  line  of  fire  to  leeward,  and  then  be- 
gan to  whip  out  first  one  and  then  another 
of  the  projecting  points  of  flame  which  were 
creeping  forward  in  advance  of  the  rest, 
leaving  all  the  fires  on  that  part  of  the 
ground  which  was  already  run  over,  to 
burn  themselves  out  as  they  would.  He 
met  all  the  other  advancing  points  as  they 
came  one  after  another  to  the  front,  and 
stopped  them,  and  thus  effectually  pre- 
vented any  further  progress  in  any  part. 
He  was  careful,  too,  to  strike  his  blows  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  brush  back  the  burning 
grass  and  leaves  toward  the  ground  which 
had  already  been  burnt  over,  instead  of 
scattering  them  in  every  direction,  as  the 
boys  had  done.  In  this  way  the  progress 


284  HUBERT. 

of  the  flames  in  the  direction  toward  which 
the  wind  was  blowing  was  entirely  arrested, 
and  Mr.  Darricutt  had  nothing  to  do  but  to 
stand  quietly  by,  and  keep  watching  the 
margin,  ready  to  give  a  little  pat  with  his 
bough  upon  any  new  flame  which  might 
spring  up  on  the  line. 

"  That  is  a  great  deal  the  best  way  to  do 
it,"  said  Georgie. 

"  Best  for  me,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt,  "  but 
perhaps  not  for  you." 

"  I  think  it  is  the  best  way  for  anybody," 
said  Georgie. 

"  That  depends  upon  what  their  object  is," 
said  Mr.  Darricutt.  *  "  Your  object  was  to 
have  a  frolic,  and  that  was  all  right.  My 
object  was  to  stop  the  fire.  Your  way  is 
the  best  for  having  a  frolic,  and  mine  the 
best  for  stopping  the  fire.  I  think  that  on  the 
whole  you  succeeded  quite  as  well  as  I  did." 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 
A    Chemistry   Lesson. 

~T~TTHEN  the  fire  was  stopped  on  the  lee- 
ward side,  there  was  no  difficulty  in 
controlling  it  in  its  progress  to  windward. 
So  Mr.  Darricutt  left  the  boys  to  manage  it 
by  themselves, — telling  them  that  they  could 
make  it  a  serious  business,  or  a  frolic,  which- 
ever would  amuse  them  most, — and  went 
back  to  his  reading. 

"  Let's  make  it  a  serious  business,"  said 
Georgie,  "  I'm  tired  of  the  frolic." 

Hubert  agreed  to  this,  and  in  a  short  time 
the  boys  had  quite  a  large  piece  of  ground 
burnt  over,  extending  on  every  side  from 


286  HUBERT. 

the  place  where  they  had  determined  to 
make  the  camp  fire.  They  then  proceeded 
to  make  the  fire,  gathering  sticks  from  all 
the  thickets  around,  and  bringing  them  to 
the  spot.  As  soon  as  they  had  got  the  fire 
kindled,  they  went  off  after  more  fuel,  and 
when  they  came  back  with  their  load,  Hu- 
bert set  himself  at  work  cutting,  or  rather 
breaking  up,  the  sticks  with  his  hatchet,  for 
many  of  them  were  too  long  to  be  used  con- 
veniently for  the  fire.  But  he  did  not  suc- 
ceed very  well,  for  he  could  not  hold  the 
sticks  still  enough  on  the  ground, — the  only 
way  of  doing  it  being  to  press  them  down 
with  his  foot  when  cutting  them.  While  the 
boys  were  employed  in  this  way  they  heard 
Mr.  Darricutt  call  them.  They  looked  to- 
ward him,  and  he  pointed  to  quite  a  large, 
though  short  log,  which  was  lying  near  some 
rocks  at  some  distance  from  their  fire. 


THE   CHOPPING-BLOCK.  28/ 

"  There  is  a  big  log  out  there  by  those 
rocks,"  said  he.  "Go  and  see  if  you  can't 
roll  it  to  your  fire." 

"  Ah,  but  that  log  won't  do  for  us,"  re- 
plied Georgie.  "  It  is  a  great  deal  too  big." 

"  Demurring,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt,  quietly, 
and  then  at  once  resumed  his  reading. 

"  Let's  go  and  get  it,"  said  Hubert,  speak- 
ing in  an  undertone  to  Georgie. 

So  the  boys  went  off  to  get  the  log,  and 
after  a  time,  though  with  considerable  diffi- 
culty, they  succeeded  in  rolling  it  up  near 
to  the  fire.  When  they  began  to  draw  near, 
and  had  stopped  for  a  moment  to  rest,  Mr. 
Darricutt  called  to  them,  saying, — 

"  When  you  get  it  into  the  camp,  Hubert 
can  use  one  end  of  it  for  a  chopping-block, 
and  you  can  then  have  it  for  a  seat." 

The  boys  looked  down  for  a  moment  at 
the  log,  and  then  Georgie  said, — 


288  HUBERT. 

"  Yes,  it  will  be  excellent  to  use  it  in  that 
way.  I  did  not  think  of  that.  I  thought  he 
meant  that  we  were  to  put  it  on  our  fire  for 
a  back  log." 

"  Or  for  a  forestick,"  suggested  Hu- 
bert. 

"  Yes,  or  for  a  forestick,"  said  Georgie, 
"  but  I  knew  that  would  not  do." 

So  Georgie,  as  boys  very  often  do,  al- 
though he  had  been  shown  to  be  mistaken 
and  in  the  wrong,  claimed  a  triumph  by  in- 
geniously contriving  a  way  of  making  him- 
self out  to  have  been  in  the  right. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Darricutt  went  on 
reading  quietly,  while  the  boys  were  occu- 
pied in  completing  their  arrangements  at 
the  fire.  At  length  he  went  over  to  make 
them  a  visit. 

"  We  like  the  log  very  much,"  said  Hu- 
bert. 


CHEMISTRY.  289 

"  I'm  glad  of  it,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt,  "  and 
your  fire  burns  very  well." 

The  boys  assented  to  this,  and  said  that 
they  were  having  a  very  good  time,  and 
that  they  were  very  much  obliged  to  Mr 
Darricutt  for  coming  with  them.  He  said 
he  liked  to  go  anywhere  with  boys  that, 
like  Hubert  and  Georgie  obeyed  him  im- 
plicitly in  all  that  he  directed. 

"  I  like  to  go  on  such  a  campaign  as  this," 
he  added, "  when  I  have  my  troops  perfectly 
under  command." 

Mr.  Darricutt  added,  that  he  was  having 
a  good  time,  too,  on  his  own  account ;  for 
he  found  his  book,  at  the  part  where  he  was 
reading,  very  interesting  indeed. 

Hubert  then  asked  him  what  chemistry 
was  about.     He  said  it  was  about  the  differ- 
ent kinds  of  substances  of  which  all  things 
vrere  composed,  and  the  changes  which  took 
25 


2QO  HUBERT. 

place,  when  they  were  combined  in  different 
ways. 

"  Do  you  know  what  the  difference  is  be- 
tween chemical  action  and  mechanical  ac- 
tion ?"  asked  Mr.  Darricutt. 

The  boys  said  they  did  not. 

"  Then  I'll  tell  you,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt, 
"  and  so  you  will  have  a  lesson  in  chemis- 
try." 

Mr.  Darricutt  then  went  on  to  explain 
that  when  two  bodies  or  two  substances 
come  together  so  as  to  act  upon  each  other 
in  any  way,  while  yet  each  retained  its  own 
nature  and  its  own  properties,  it  was  me- 
chanical action  ;  but  when  they  combined 
in  such  a  way  as  to  form  new  substances 
which  were  of  a  different  nature,  and  had 
different  properties  from  those  that  either 
had  before,  it  was  chemical  action. 

"  If  you  mix  peas  and  beans  together,"  he 


CHEMISTRY.  29! 

said,  "  in  a  basket  or  bowl,  and  shake  or  stir 
them  so  as  to  mingle  them  ever  so  inti- 
mately, they  will  be  peas  and  beans  still, 
without  any  change  in  their  nature.  It  will 
be  the  same  with  smaller  things,  as,  for  in- 
stance, mustard-seed  and  poppy-seed.  You 
may  mix  them  so  completely  that  one  can- 
not hardly  tell  by  the  eye  that  there  were 
two  kinds  of  seeds  in  the  bowl.  Still,  each 
seed  would  retain  its  own  properties  un- 
changed. You  may  have  the  things  to  be 
mixed  smaller  still,  as,  for  instance,  particles 
of  sugar  and  of  water.  These  particles  are 
so  small  that  not  even  a  microscope  can  dis- 
tinguish them.  But  if  you  dissolve  sugar  in 
water  the  particles  will  not  be  changed  at 
all  in  character ; — they  will  only  be  mixed. 
There  will  be  a  particle  of  sugar  and  a  parti- 
cle of  water  by  the  side  of  it,  that  is  all.  The 
sugar  will  be  sugar,  and  the  water  will  be 


HUBERT. 

water, — just  as  before, — and  it  is  easy  to  get 
them  all  separated  again  so  as  to  get  back 
the  sugar  and  the  water  pure  as  they  were 
before  they  were  mixed.  All  these  are 
called  mechanical  changes.  They  are  merely 
changes  in  the  place  and  arrangement  of 
the  substances,  and  not  at  all  a  change  in 
their  nature." 

Mr.  Darricutt  went  on  to  explain  in  this 
way,  that  sometimes  when  two  substances 
are  brought  together  they  combine  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  change  their  nature  entirely. 
If,  for  example,  you  pour  water  upon  chalk, 
or  upon  whiting — which  is  a  kind  of  chalk — 
in  the  bottom  of  a  cup,  and  mix  them  to- 
gether, nothing  will  be  changed.  You  will 
have  only  particles  of  chalk  and  particles  of 
water  lying  side  by  side  in  the  cup.  But  if 
you  pour  vinegar  upon  chalk,  and  mix  them 
together,  it  will  be  very  different.  They 


CHEMISTRY.  293 

will  both  change  their  nature  entirely,  or 
rather,  new  substances  will  be  formed  of 
quite  different  nature  from  either  of  them. 
There  will  be  no  more  vinegar  or  chalk  in 
the  cup,  but  new  substances  very  different. 
One  of  these  substances  will  be  a  kind  of  air 
or  gas,  and  will  go  off  in  little  bubbles,  and 
the  rest, — that  is,  what  remains  in  the  cup 
will  not  be  vinegar  or  water,  but  something 
different  from  either. 

"  I  mean  to  try  it,"  said  Hubert. 

"  We'll  try  it  together,"  said  Georgie. 

"  That  will  be  a  very  good  plan,"  replied 
Mr.  Darricutt. 

"  Now,  the  burning  of  wood,"  added  Mr. 
Darricutt,  "  is  a  chemical  process.  The  air 
and  the  wood  come  together  in  the  fire,  and 
certain  substances  in  the  air  and  certain 
others  in  the  wood  unite  and  form  new  sub- 
stances entirely  different.  Some  of  these 
25* 


294  HUBERT. 

go  off  in  the  smoke,  and  some  remain  in  the 
ashes.  Now  my  book  teaches  me  about  all 
such  things  as  those." 

"  Then  I  think  that,  perhaps,  I  should  like 
it,"  said  Hubert. 

"  Perhaps  you  would,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt. 
"  At  any  rate,  I  have  given  you  a  lesson  in 
chemistry  by  what  I  have  told  you,  and  in 
making  your  fire  you  are  making  a  chemical 
experiment.  So  when  you  go  home,  and 
anybody  asks  you  where  you  have  been, 
and  what  you  have  been  doing  this  after- 
noon, you  can  either  tell  them  that  you 
have  been  studying  chemistry  and  making 
a  chemical  experiment,  or  that  you  have 
been  down  in  the  woods  talking  with  me 
and  building  a  fire." 


CHAPTER   XXV. 
A  Successful  Expedition. 

r  1 1HE  boys  after  this  said  that  they  were 
going  down  to  a  brook  near  by,  to  get 
some  sand  to  cover  their  potatoes  with  in 
the  fire,  instead  of  ashes. 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt.  "  Only 
if  anything  detains  you,  then  come  back  and 
report  to  me  in  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour." 

"  But  we  shall  not  be  gone  five  minutes," 
said  Georgie.  "  We  are  only  going  to  get 
a  pailful  of  sand  to  cover  up  our  potatoes 
with." 

So  saying,  Georgie  held  up  a  small  tin 
pail  which  they  had  brought  in  their  bas- 


296  HUBERT. 

ket,  with  some  of  their  provisions  in  it,  and 
which  they  were  now  going  to  take  to  bring 
their  sand  in. 

"  You  may  possibly  find  something  to 
attract  your  attention  and  so  get  detained," 
said  Mr.  Darricutt.  "  If  so,  do  not  remain 
longer  than  fifteen  minutes,  as  near  as  you 
can  judge,  without  coming  to  report  to 
me." 

So  saying,  Mr.  Darricutt  returned  to  his 
seat  and  to  his  reading,  and  the  boys  ran  off 
down  the  path  which  led  to  the  little  brook. 

Mr.  Darricutt  was  right  in  anticipating 
the  possibility  that  the  boys  might  find 
something  to  detain  them,  for  ten  minutes 
or  more  passed  away  and  they  did  not  ap- 
pear. 

"  They  have  found  something  or  other,  I 
suppose,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt  to  himself;  "a 
bird  s  nest,  perhaps,  or  some  polliwogs  in 


THE   FOX'S   HOLE.  297 

the  water ;  or,  perhaps,  a  crooked  stick  that 
they  think  is  an  eel." 

At  length,  at  the  end  of  about  fifteen  min- 
utes, Georgie  appeared  at  the  head  of  the 
path,  where  it  emerged  from  the  thicket, 
and  called  out  to  Mr.  Darricutt. 

"  William,"  said  he,  "  we've  found  a  fox's 
hole,  and  we  are  going  to  dig  the  old  fox  out." 

"  All  right,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt. 

"  Can  we  stay  longer  ?"  asked  Georgie. 

"  Fifteen  minutes  more,"  said  Mr.  Darri- 
cutt, "  and  then  come  and  report.  But 
what  are  you  going  to  do  for  shovels  ?" 

"  Hubert  has  made  two  very  good  ones," 
replied  Georgie,  "  out  of  a  piece  of  wood 
that  he  split  up  into  thin  flat  pieces." 

"  All  right !"  said  Mr.  Darricutt. 

Georgie  then  ran  down  the  path  again 
and  disappeared. 

After  the  lapse  of  some  little  time  he  ap- 


298  HUBERT. 

peared  again.  As  soon  as  he  came  within 
hearing  he  asked  whether  it  was  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  yet.  Mr.  Darricutt  said  he  thought 
it  was  about  that,  and  asked  him  if  they  had 
dug  out  the  fox. 

"  No,"  said  Georgie.  "  We  found  after 
we  had  dug  in  a  little  way  that  it  was  an 
old  hole,  and  so  we  gave  it  up.  But  we 
have  made  us  a  splendid  Indian  wigwam, 
and  wish  that  you  would  come  down  and 
see  it" 

"  That  I'll  do  with  pleasure,"  said  Mr. 
Darricutt.  "  I  should  like  to  see  an  Indian 
wigwam  very  much." 

So  he  rose  from  his  seat  and  accompanied 
Georgie  down  to  the  brook.  There  they 
found  what  Georgie  called  the  wigwam, 
which  was  a  simple  booth  made  by  leaning 
poles  and  boughs  of  trees  against  the  up- 
turned roots  of  a  fallen  tree. 


A   SENSIBLE   CONCLUSION.  299 

"  We  wanted  very  much  to  make  a  fire  in 
our  wigwam,"  said  Georgie,  "  but  we  con- 
cluded that  you  would  not  be  willing." 

"  That  was  a  very  sensible  conclusion  that 
you  came  to,"  said  Mr.  Darricutt.  "  But  it 
is  a  very  nice  wigwam.  1  don't  wonder  that 
you  would  have  liked  a  fire  in  it.  Very 
likely  that  when  I  was  as  old  as  you,  Geor- 
gie, if  1  had  built  such  a  wigwam,  and  had 
had  any  matches,  I  should  have  made  a  fire 
in  it  at  once,  without  stopping  to  think  of 
the  possible  consequences.  But  you  are 
a  more  sensible  boy  it  seems  than  I  was  at 
your  age." 

"  It  was  Hubert  who  said  it  would  not 
do,"  said  Georgie,  not  willing  to  take 
to  himself  credit  that  did  not  belong  to 
him. 

"  It  is  generous  in  you  to  say  so,"  replied 
Mr.  Darricutt,  "  but  still  I  believe  you  would 


300  HUBERT. 

have  had  sense  enough  to  see  it  yourself,  if 
he  had  not  told  you." 

"  I  suppose  our  fire  at  the  camp  is  all  out 
before  this  time,"  said  Hubert. 

"  No,"  replied  Mr.  Darricutt.  "  I  put  it 
together  myself  a  little  while  ago,  so  that 
you  will  find  it  burning." 

This  is  what  Mr.  Darricutt  had  done. 
When  the  boys  built  the  fire,  they  laid  a 
great  many  sticks  upon  it  that  were  so  long 
that  the  ends  extended  out  quite  far  on  each 
side.  At  first  Hubert  tried  to  cut  all  these 
long  sticks  up  into  short  ones,  using  the  end 
of  the  log  for  a  chopping-block.  This  he 
could  do  very  well  with  the  sticks  that  were 
somewhat  decayed,  and  consequently  brittle. 
But  those  which  were  sound  and  yet  dry, 
were  very  hard  to  cut ;  for  wood,  in  being 
dried,  shrinks  and  becomes  condensed,  which 
makes  it  much  harder  and  tougher  than  it 


A  NEW   STOCK   OF  FUEL.  30! 

was  before.  So  Hubert  soon  gave  up  the 
attempt  to  cut  the  sticks  and  poles  of  this 
kind,  but  laid  them  at  full  length  on  the  fire, 
the  ends  extending  equally  in  both  direc- 
tions. 

After  a  while,  of  course,  the  fire  burned  out 
the  middle  of  the  pile  so  made,  thus  dividing 
all  the  sticks  in  two  :  and  it  would  then  have 

• 

gone  out,  had  it  not  been  that  Mr.  Darricutt 
had  taken  up  the  ends,  and  laid  them  over 
the  hot  coals  in  the  centre  again,  thus  sup- 
plying the  fire  with  a  new  stock  of  fuel. 

After  Mr.  Darricutt  had  seen  the  wigwam 
and  was  about  to  return,  the  boys,  finding 
that  the  pleasure  to  be  derived  from  a  wig- 
wam consisted  in  the  making  of  it,  and  that 
"there  was  not  much  to  be  done  with  it  after 
it  was  once  made,  concluded  to  go  back  with 
Mr.  Darricutt  to  the  fire.  And  when  they 

reached  the  fire,  and  had  pushed  the  sticks 
26 


302  HUBERT. 

together  a  little,  and  made  a  fresh  blaze,  and 
talked  with  Mr.  Darricutt  a  little  more,  they 
concluded  that  they  did  not  care  much  about 
the  cooking  after  all.  Mr.  Darricutt  said  it 
was  time  for  him  to  go  home,  but  that  they 
might  stay  and  play  at  their  fire,  or  go  with 
him,  just  as  they  pleased.  It  was  safe  for 
them  to  stay  and  keep  up  their  fire,  he  said, 
since  all  the  ground  near  it  had  been  burnt 
over. 

The  boys  concluded  that  they  would  go 
home.  So  they  pulled  the  fire  to  pieces  and 
extinguished  the  brands  by  dashing  upon 
them  handfuls  of  the  wet  sand  which  they 
had  brought  up  from  the  brook  in  the  pail, 
and  then  replacing  their  provisions  in  the 
pail  and  in  the  basket,  they  set  out  together . 
on  their  return. 

"  This  expedition  has  been  a  failure,"  said 
Georgie. 


A   GREAT   SUCCESS.  303 

"  On  the  contrary,"  replied  Mr.  Darricutt, 
"  it"  has  been  a  great  success.  We  did  not 
come  out  particularly  to  roast  potatoes,  but 
for  exercise  and  recreation,  and  to  have  a 
good  time.  I  am  sure  I've  had  a  good  time." 

"  And  I,  too,"  said  Hubert. 

"  And  I,  too,"  said  Georgie. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 
Cone  his  ion. 

~T~  HOPE  that  those  boys  who  may  read 
this  book  will  take  notice  of  and  under- 
stand the  principles  of  management  by 
which  Mr.  Darricutt  was  governed  in  the 
treatment  of  Hubert  and  Georgie  on  this 
occasion,  and  will  remember  them,  so  that 
when  they  grow  up  to  be  eighteen  or  twenty 
years  of  age,  and  have  younger  boys  put 
temporarily  under  their  charge,  they  may 
act  in  the  same  way.  These  principles  were 
two. 

i.  Great  strictness  and  firmness  in  requir- 
ing the  most  prompt  and  unquestioning  obe- 

(3°4) 


PRINCIPLES   OF   MANAGEMENT.         305 

dience  to  your  commands  in  all  cases  re- 
quiring the  exercise  of  authority,  and  at  the 
same  time, 

2.  Extreme  indulgence  and  freedom  from 
restraint,  in  all  cases  where  the  exercise  of 
authority  is  not  required. 

Many  persons  situated  as  he  was,  when 
the  boys  made  objections  to  anything  which 
he  commanded,  would  have  answered  the 
objections,  and  begun  to  argue  the  case 
with  them,  instead  of  simply  saying,  "  De- 
murring," as  he  did, — thus  refusing  to  allow 
them  to  make  any  objections  at  all.  On  the 
other  hand,  when  the  boys  proposed  to  dig 
out  the  fox,  some  persons  would  have  at- 
tempted to  dissuade  them  from  the  attempt 
by  telling  them  that  it  was  foolish  to  do  it, 
— that  there  was  probably  no  fox  there,  and 
that  if  there  was,  it  was  not  at  all  likely  that 
they  could  dig  him  out  with  such  shovels 
26* 


306  HUBERT. 

as  Hubert  could  hew  out  of  a  piece  of  wood 
with  his  hatchet, — or  that  they  had  come 
down  there  to  roast  some  potatoes  and  ap- 
ples at  the  fire,  and  that  they  evinced  only 
fickleness  in  leaving  one  undertaking  unfin- 
ished and  engaging  in  something  else, — as 
if  changing  from  one  thing  to  another,  un- 
der the  impulse  of  momentary  feeling — or, 
caprice  if  you  choose  to  call  it  so — was  not 
one  of  the  special  charms  of  playing. 

You  must  remember  when  you  grow  up, 
that  as  grown  people  now  are  not  good 
judges  of  what  will  amuse  you,  so  you, 
when  }^ou  are  grown,  will  not  be  able  to 
judge  well  as  to  what  will  amuse  them. 
You  must,  accordingly,  give  them  the  larg- 
est possible  indulgence  in  respect  even  to 
their  caprices  in  playing,  so  long  as  what 
they  wish  to  do  is  not  hurtful  to  themselves 
or  others ;  but  then  you  must  be  firm  and 


WONDERFUL   IMPROVEMENT.  307 

immovable  —  though  in  kind  and  gentle 
ways  —  in  requiring  immediate  and  strict 
obedience  to  your  authority  whenever  you 
feel  it  necessary  to  exercise  it.  Issue  orders 
and  prohibitions  as  little  as  possible  —  but 
when  you  do  command  or  forbid,  insist  on 
being  obeyed. 

Under  the  influence  to  which  Hubert  was 
subjected  in  Juno's  school  and  in  his  hours 
of  play  with  Georgie,  he  soon  recovered 
from  the  discouragement  which  had  weighed 
upon  him  in  respect  to  his  studies,  when  he 
first  came  to  live  with  his  aunt.  His  aunt 
observed  the  wonderful  improvement  which 
he  made,  but  she  attributed  it  altogether  to 
the  influence  of  her  counsels  and  instruc- 
tions, and  to  the  various  incidental  benefits 
resulting  from  his  residing  in  her  family. 
She  candidly  admitted,  however,  that  Juno 
was,  on  the  whole,  quite  a  nice  person,  and 


308  HUBERT. 

succeeded  very  well  in  teaching  the  elemen- 
tary branches. 

The  reader,  in  closing  the  book,  after  fin- 
ishing the  perusal  of  it,  may  say  to  himself 
that  the  Juno  of  these  volumes  is  a  fictitious 
character.  In  one  sense  she  is,  and  another 
she  is  not.  There  are  a  great  many  Juno's 
in  the  humble  walks  of  real  life,  all  patiently 
and  faithfully  fulfilling  their  duties  in  the 
manner  and  on  the  principles  here  explained 
— and  yet  as  little  understood  and  appreci- 
ated by  many  of  those  around  them,  as  their 
representative  in  these  volumes  was  by  H  u- 
bert  and  Aunt  Cornelia.  But  they  do  not 
feel  much  the  want  of  this  consideration. 
They  have  their  reward. 


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The  story  is  very  interesting,  many  of  the 
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or. The  dangers  and  temptations  of  a  sea 
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services  for  seamen,  botli  wln-n  in  port  and 
when  at  sea..  -Sunday  School  Tiuifs. 

Jacques   Bonneval  ;     or, 

The  Days  of  the  Dragon  nades. 
A  Tale  of  the  Huguenots.  By 
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So  lifelike  are  the  scenes  described, 
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A  story  of  an  orphan  girl  who  was  re- 
ceived into  the  family  of  her  uncle,  a  weal- 
thy merchant,  where  she  made  herself  very 
useful  to  the  worldly  and  ungodly  family  by 
her  modest  but  steadfast  no  to  every  entice- 
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Tom    Burton  ;    or,    The 

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The  story  of 'wo  journeymen  mechanics, 
on?  nl  whom  employed  his  leisure  hours  in 
reading  and  study,  attending  mechanics' 
im'.iu;:es,  etc.  The  other  frequented  the 
tavern.  It  is  a  good  lemperAiiil  story — 
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The    Grahams.       By 

G.  Fuller.     Illustrated 


J. 

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An  officer  in  the  United  States  army  was 
killed  at  the  storming  of  Chapultepec,  'n 
(lit  Mexican  war.  This  litre  vo'ume  tel  s 
•"^e  sVry  of  his  w  clow  a. id  his  three  chil- 
t  i:i  :  r,<  w  the  'alter  were  ~Uicited,  pnd 


what  became  of  each.  There  is  a  good 
deal  of  variety  in  the  incidents,  and  the 
lessons  ii-.tu'cated  ?.re  those  of  unselfishness 
and  duty.— JT.  5".  Times. 

Toi!  and  Trust;   or,  The 

Life  Story  of  Patty,  the  Work- 
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The  life-story  of  a  workhouse  eirl,  show- 
ing that  poor  unfortunates  of  this  kind  ap 
rot  always  destitute  of  good  demean?  r 
the;r  nature,  but  may  sometimes  be  mould- 
ed into  usefulness  and  propriety.  The 
volume  contains  also  some  powerful  lesson* 
on  intemperance. — 5".  .i'.  Times. 

Alice  and    her   Friends; 

or,  The  Crosses  of  Childhood 
3  illustrations      ....     o  85 

A  book  intended  for  the  yourgespecia''y, 
and  showing  that  every  chi'd  has  a  cross  of 
some  kind  to  take  up.  Mrs.  Seymour,  the 
v  te  woman  of  the  book,  first  tea  dins 
her  little  daughter  "Alice"  what  hei 
cross  is.  Then,  as  her  cousins  and  <  tl'ei 
friends  visit  her  from  time  t<>  time,  tin 
crosses  of  each  are  severally  pi-it. ter!  out 
and  tiny  are  shown  how  to  .11'  :i  them 
The  st-iry  is  arra.iged  with  mu1.'-  ,^l?;!i»v 
and  its  teachings  ?re  as  >.is^  ai  "••  *  \~ 
impartial. — S.  S.  7  inns. 


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Judah's    Lion 


85 


Individuality  of  character  is  faithfully 
preserved,  and  every  one  is  necessary  to 
the  plot.  The  reader  will  find  in  this  book 
much  information  that  he  can  only  find 
elsewhere  by  very  laborious  research. 
Charlotte  Elizabeth  is  a  firm  believer  in 
the  national  restoration  of  the  Jews  to  the 
possession  of  Palestine,  but  believes  they 
will  previously  be  converted  to  Christian- 
ity. We  advise  our  friends  not  to  take  up 
this  book  until  they  can  spare  time  for  the 
perusal  ;  because,  if  they  commence,  it 
will  require  much  self-denial  to  lav  it  down 
until  it  is  fairly  read  through. — Christian 
A  dvocate  and  Journal. 

Count  Raymond  of  Tou- 
louse, and  the  Crusade  against 
the  Albigcnses  under  Pope  Inno- 
cent III o  85 

It  is  a  striking,  life-like  picture  of  the 
sufferings  of  the  Albigenses.  mingling  the 
facts  of  history  with  sketches  of  personal 
character,  and  individual  heroism,  in  a 
manner  to  excite  an  interest,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  instruct.  It  is  a  historical 
episode,  replete  with  important  lessons. — 
New  York  Evangelist. 


False- 
.   o  85 


Conformity,  and 

hood  and  Truth  . 


We  read  tli's  .i.?.2  volume  with  great 
and  unqualified  satisfaction.  We  wish  we 
could  induce  every  professor  of  religion  in 
our  large  cities,  and  indeed  all  who  are  in 
any  way  exposed  to  contact  with  the  fashion- 
able world,  to  read  it.  The  author,  in  this 
iittle  work,  fully  sustains  li  r  reputation  as 
a  very  Accomplished  and  superior  writer, 
ar.d  l!ie  stanch  advocate  of  Evangelical 
principles,  carried  out  and  made  inflnen- 
ia!  upi'ii  tlu'  whole  life  n  .rl  conduct. — 
Eft;  'R'corJ.r 


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1  Judaea  Capta,'  the  last  offering  from  the 
pen  of  this  gifted  and  popular  writer,  will  be 
esteemed  as  one  of  her  best  works.  It  is  a 
graphic  narrative  of  the  invasion  of  Judea 
by  the  Roman  legions  under  Vespasian  and 
Titus,  presenting  affecting  views  of  the  des- 
olation of  her  towns  and  cities,  by  the 
ravages  of  iron-hearted,  bloodthirsty  sol- 
diers, and  of  the  terrible  catastrophe  wit- 
nessed in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 
Her  occasional  strictures  on  the  history  of 
the  apostate  Josephus,  who  evidently  wrote 
to  please  his  imperial  masters,  appear  to 
have  been  well  merited. — Christian  Ob- 
server. 


The   Deserter 


o  85 


The  principal  hero  of  the  story  is  a 
young  Irishman,  who  was  led,  through  the 
influence  of  one  of  his  comrades,  to  enlist 
in  the  British  army,  contrary  to  the  earnest 
entreaties  of  his  mother,  and  who  went  on 
from  one  step  to  another  in  the  career  of 
crime  till  he  was  finally  shot  as  a  destrter; 
though  not  till  after  he  had  practically  em- 
braced the  Gospel.  The  account  of  the 
closing  scene  is  one  of  the  finest  examples 
of  pathetic  description  that  we  re.nember 
to  have  met  with. — Daily  Citizen. 

Persona!    Recollections, 

with  Explanatory  Notes   and  a 

Memoir $o  85 

We  doubt  if  the  lives  of  many  fcma'e? 
are  blended  with  more  incidents  and  rich»i 
lessons  of  instruction  and  wisdom.  than  the 
life  of  Charlotte  Elizabeth.  It  will  be 
found  as  captivating  as  any  nrxnnce,  and 
will  leave  on  the  mind  a  lasting  impression 
for  good. — A  Ibany  Sfeflaio  -. 

The  Flower  Garden. 

o  85 

A  collection  of  d^sp'y  interesting  sketch- 
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thor does  not  pretend  to  give  the  example 
of  Washington  in  his  entire  life,  but  em- 
ploys the  weight  of  his  great  name  to  arrest 
and  fix  the  attention  of  the  young  upon 
some  of  the  essential  excellencies  of  char- 
acter that  were  so  fully  Illustrated  in  that 
unequalled  specimen  of  human  greatness  ; 
the  prominent  points  in  the  work  being  the 
character  of  Washington  as  a  religious  man. 
The  book  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
youth  in  the  land." 


Fruits      of     the      May 

Flower $o  50 

The  volume  contains  an  accurate  anj 
somewhat  full  account  of  the  origin  of  the 
Plymouth  Colony,  and  of  its  progress  dm 
ing  the  first  three  years  o!  its  exjst^ntt 
The  character  and  noble  deeds  of  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers  are  thus  clearly  brought  to 
view.  The  facts  stated  are  drawn  frimj 
original  documents. — Preface. 

The  Old  Stone  House, 

Or,  the  Patriot's  Fireside  .  o  50 
Under  the  guise  of  a  familiar,  pleas.int 
tale  of  the  Revolutionary  era,  Dr.  A:den 
has  here  presented  a  condensed  and  most 
excellent  compend  of  the  elementary  prin- 
ciples of  the  science  of  government,  and 
our  early  political  history,  it  strikes  us  as 
one  of  the  most  useful,  as  well  as  nble  and 
ingenious  of  the  author's  many  juvenile 
works,  and  will  be  a  good  book  for  the 
family,  and  not  less  for  the  school-room. — 
A''.  Y.  Evangelist. 


The  Fred,   and  Minnie  Library. 

sets.     (Any  volume  sold  separately.)     .     .     .     . 

Fred.     Lawrence;      or, 

The  World  College.  By  Mar- 
garet E.  Teller.  Illustrated, 
i8mo o  75 

A  deepV  interesting  story  of  an  Ameri- 
can youth  devoting  himself  with  a  loity 
sense  of  duty  to  the  support  of  a  .le.pend- 
ent  mother  and  sister,  and  gaining  a 
strength  and  manly  independence  of  char- 
tcV-r  by  the  discipline  he  undergoes,  as 
well  as  a  cultivated  mind,  by  a  faithful  and 
religious  employment  of  his  leibure  hours. 
— A  m.  Presbyterian. 

The    Deaf    Shoemaker, 

and   Other   Stories.     By   Philip 

Barrett    Illustrated,  iSmo   o  75 

The  autl  or  of  this  charming  little  book 
•liderstands  what  will  interest  children. 
»nd  how  to  adapt  his  style  and  language  to 
their  taste  and  w?nts.  We  cord:  'ly  re- 
commend it  to  a  place  in  every  Sabbath 
School  and  family  library. — Advocate  and 


5    vols. 


in 

75 

Minnie     Carlton.        By 

Mary  Belle  Bartlett.     A  beauti 

ful  story  for  girls. 

i8mo 


Illustrated, 
.     o  So 


The  subject  of  this  narrative  is  the 
eldest  daughter  of  a  household,  forced  by 
the  death  of  her  mother  to  take  charge  ot 
it.  The  pledge  given  to  her  dying  mothei 
to  train  the  little  ones  to  meet  her  in  heav- 
en is  conscientiously  fulfilled,  and  the  'ss- 
sons  of  her  example,  prudence,  and  piety, 
rewarded  by  the  most  cheering  resu'ts, 
bringing  light  and  joy  to  the  household, 
will  scarcely  be  read  without  deep  and 
grateful  emotion. — -V.  York  Evangelist, 

The      Russell      Family. 

Bv  Anna  Hastings.     Illustrated, 

ismo o  75 

A  very  beautiful  and  instructive  story 
from  real  life,  illustrating  the  power  of  a 
Christian  mother,  and  the  sweet  inftneii  •«* 
of  the  domestic  circle.— AV«»  Yo~k  •  '* 
lerver. 


Frank     Forest.       For  Des(riftit>nt  see 


DODD    &    MEAD'S 


LATEST 


JUVENILE  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  BOOKS, 
762  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK. 


THE   JUNO    STORIES.     A  Series  for  Sunday-Schools. 
By  JACOB  ABBOTT.     To  be  completed  in  4  volumes. 
Beautifully  illustrated  and  bound  in  fancy  cloth,  new  style. 

Per  volume $i  25 

ist.  Juno  and  Georgie.      In  April. 
2d.   Mary  Osborn.  " 

3d.   Juno  on  a  Journey.     In  September. 
4th.  Hubert.  " 

Mr.  Abbott,  well  known  as  one  of  the  most  successful  writers  of  juvenile  books  in 
the  country,  has  published  nothing  intended  expressly  for  Sunday  Schools  in  many 
years.  This  series,  which  is  written  in  similar  style  to  the  famous  Franconia 
Stories,  is  in  the  author's  best  vein,  and  will,  it  is  believed,  do  its  part  toward 
meeting  the  urgent  demand  for  a  higher  class  of  Sunday-school  literature. 


o 


LIVER    WYNDHAM.     A   Historical    Tale.     By  the 
Author  of  "  Naomi."      i6mo,  fancy  cloth,  new  style. 

i  50 

An  excellent  and  intensely  interesting  historical  story  by  a  well-known  author. 
The  scene  is  laid  in  the  eventful  period  of  the  Great  Plague  and  Fire  in  London, 
in  1665.  A  capital  book  for  the  older  scholars. 


HTHE  OFFICER'S  CHILDREN.     A  Story  of  the  Indian 

-*-       Mutiny.     By  the  Wife  of  an  Officer.     i8mo,  illustrated, 

fancy  cloth,  new  style o  75 

A  charming  story  founded  on  fact,  and  written  by  one  who  had  a  personal  ex- 
perience of  the  scenes  described. 

The  story,  while  of  intense  interest,  conveys  incidentally  a  correct  idea  of  Life  in 
India  at  the  time  of  the  great  mutiny. 


T 


Dodd  &  Mead's  Catalogue. 

HE    SPANISH   BARBER.     A  Tale  of  the  Bible  in 
Spain.      By  the  Author  of   "  Mary  Powell."     i6mo, 
illustrated $i  25 


This  beautiful  tale  will  attract  unusual  attention  from  its  subject  as  well  as  the 
reputation  of  its  accomplished  author.  The  story  turns  on  the  recent  Revolution  ii 
Spain,  opening  the  country  to  the  Bible  and  religious  toleration.  Modern  Spanish 
life  is  charmingly  depicted,  and  the  working  of  the  recent  changes  strikingly 
illustrated  in  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  Spanish  Barber  and  his  family. 

"  This  little  story  is  a  narrative  of  the  experience  of  a  colporteur  introducing  the 
Bible  in  Spain  at  a  period  only  a  few  years  back.  The  author  gives  us  no  harrow- 
ing stories  of  the  Inquisition,  the  rack,  and  the  dungeon.  The  scene  is  laid  princi- 
oally  at  Gibraltar.  It  will  be  read  with  deep  interest  by  those  who  watch  the  pro- 
gress of  Protestant  Christianity." — Chicago  Commercial. 

PHILIP   BRANTLEY'S    LIFE   WORK   AND    HOW 
He  Found  It.     By  M.  E.  M.    i6mo,  illustrated        i   15 

"A  story  of  the  heart — simple,  earnest,  evangelical.  It  is  written  in  the  form  of  a 
daily  diary,  and  recounts  the  experiences  and  struggles  of  a  country  boy  who  passed 
through  college,  on  the  way  found  Christ,  and  after  sundry  trials,  which  refined 
his  Christian  character,  became  pastor  of  a  church  in  the  Far  West." — 5.  S.  Journal. 

"  The  account  of  the  way  Philip  Brantley  was  led,  and  the  way  in  which  he  at  last 
found  his  life  work,  and  comfort  and  happiness  in  it,  will  be  read  with  interest,  and 
will  teach  the  youth  who  read  it  profitable  lessons." — Evan.  Repository. 

UNCLE  JOHN'S  FLOWER  GATHERERS.  A  Com- 
panion for  the  Woods  and  Fields.     By  JANE  GAY 
FULLER.     Beautifully  illustrated  with  9  engravings.     i6mo, 
cloth  extra i  50 

"This  is  an  excellent  book  to  put  into  the  hands  of  children.  It  contains  a  great 
deal  of  information  about  the  common  flowers  of  our  woods  and  fields,  and  con- 
nects this  information  with  religious  instruction  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  a  most 
happy  impression  of  God's  goodness  on  the  young  heart,  and*  to  cultivate  at  once  a 
love  of  nature  and  a  love  of  God.  This  book  is  rendered  attractive  both  by  an  in- 
genious story  and  by  numerous  well-executed  and  tasteful  illustrations." — .S.  .S. 
Timrt 


JUVENILE  AND  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  BOOKS 


PUBLISHED   BY 


DODD   &    MEAD 

(SUCCESSORS  TO  M.  W.  DODD), 
762    BROADWAY,    NEW    YORK, 


Geneva's  Shield.  A  Story 

of  the  Swiss  Reformation,  by  Rev. 
W.  M.  Blackburn,  author  of  "  Ul- 
rich  Twingle,"  "  William  Farel," 
"  College  Days  of  Calvin."  i6mo. 
Three  illustrations,  .  .  $i  25 

"The  volume  before  us  is  in  everyway  an 
admirable  one.  It  is  a  vivid  and  deeply 
interesting  t,l£tvre  of  the  Swiss  Reforma- 
tion, and  che  homely  virtues  and  sterling 
piety  and  honesty,  earnestness  and  devotion 
of  the  reformers,  as  displayed  in  these  pages, 
are  calculated  to  leave  a  healthy  and  profit- 
able impression  on  the  reader's  mind." — 
The  Standard. 

"  In  the  shape  of  a  very  fascinating  story 
the  dawn  of  the  Swiss  Reformation  is  here 
portrayed,  previous  to  the  advent  of  Calvin. 
More  charming  than  romance,  this  story  is 
more  satisfying  and  ennobling.  It  ought  to 
be  in  ai)  the  Sunday- School  libraries  in  the 
land."— S.  S.  Times. 

"  Resting  on  a  solid  basis  of  fact,  the 
events  of  those  times  are  described  in  an 
attractive  narrative." — Round  Table. 

f-aul   and    Margaret,  the 

Inebriate's  Children.  By  H.  K. 
P.,  author  of  "  The  Kempton's," 
"  The  Orphan's  Triumphs,"  &c. 
i6mo.  Three  illustrations,  $i  oo 

"A  most  instructive  temperance  tale.  It 
takes  ihe  reader  into  the  dreary  home  of  the 
drunkard,  and  shows  him  an  oppressed  wife 
and  suffering  children.  The  young  man  be- 
came a  soldier  ;  was  wounded  and  taken  to 
the  hospital.  His  sister  made  a  long  journey, 
to  be  in  the  hospital  with  her  brother.  Both 
acted  nobly.  The  inebriate  father  died. 
Then  the  mother  and  her  children  were 
happily  reunited  in  the  comforts  of  home." 
— Christian  Advocate. 

"A  temperance  story  of  the  very  best 
kind.  A  better  book  for  the  Sunday  School 
has  not  visited  us  th:s  long  time." — c  S. 
Timei. 


The  Orphan's  Triumphs 

Or,  The  Story  of  i.ily  and  Harry 
Grant.      By  H.  K.  P.,  author  of 
"Paul     and     Margaret,"     "The 
Kempton's,"  &c.     161110.     Three 
illustrations,        .    .     .    .     $i  25 
"All  books  written  for  Sabbath- School 
libraries  have  not  the  same  merit  as  this. 
Lily  Grant,  the  sweet  sister  of  Harry,  was 
the   daughter  of  a  clergyman,  who,  dying 
when  she  was  quite  small,  left  her  to  the 
care  of  a  delicate,   yet  patient  and  loving 
mother,  whose  short  life  of  uncomplaining 
suffering  left  its  impress  upc%  the  daughter's 
mind,  and  whose  blessed  teachings  followed 
her  through  life.    Taken  into  a  wealthy  fam- 
ily, she  was  loved   by  all   except  one  self- 
willed,  imperious  little  girl,  whose  hatred  of 
her  arose  from  the  strong  contrast  she  saw 
existed  between  herself  and  the  little  or- 
phan.    But  the  sweet  Lily  conouers  in  the 
end,  and  Belle  is  won  to  the  love  of  Tesus, 
and  becomes  her  firm  and  faithfui  friend.   A 
sweet  story,  and  one  we  cheerfully  recom- 
merd  to  Sabbath  Schoo's  and  families." — 
J.  C.  Monthly  Chronicle. 

Oriental     and    Sacred 

Scenes.  From  Notes  and  Travel 
in  Greece,  Turkey,  and  Palestine 
With  valuable  illustrations — som» 
of  them  beautifully  colored.  By 
Fisher  Howe.  A  new  edition 

l6mo.,        $J  50 

The  author's  motive  was  "the  hope  ot 
usefulness  to  teachers  of  Sabbath-School  and 
Bible  Classes ;"  and  it  is  to  them,  as  well  as 
to  all  desiring  a  concise,  available,  and  inter- 
esting account  of  the  Holy  Land,  that  this 
beautiful  volume  is  recommended.  The  new 
edition  is  issued  at  a  reduced  jiiire,  to  bring 
it  within  the  reach  of  Sabbath- School  Li- 
braries, &c. 

"  Mr.  Howe's  sketches,  bv  their  brevity 
and  popu'.ir  interest,  will  attract  the  mass  oi 
Bible  readers  more  even  than  the  elaborate 
researches  of  Robinson  aiid  Smith." — your. 
of  Commerce. 


JUVENILE  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  BOOKS. 


Sovereigns  of  the  Bible. 

By  E.  R.  Steel.  With  illumina- 
ted title  and  many  illustrations. 
i6mo.,  beautifully  bound,  $i  50 

The  scattered  facts  in  the  Lives  of  the 
Kings  of  _  Israel  and  Jmlah  are  skilfully 
arranged  in  one  continuous  narrative,  true 
to  life  as  given  in  the  Sacred  Record,  and 
useful  to  those  who  would  gain  a  clear  and 
continuous  view  of  the  Bible  Kings  and 
their  times. 

It  is  a  valuable  book  for  the  Sunday- 
School  Library- — 6".  S.  Times. 

Elsie      Dinsmore.        By 

Martha  Farquhars-on,  author  of 
"  Allan's  Fault,"  etc.  i6mo,  il- 
lustrated  $i  25 

A  beautiful  and  instructive  story,  in  which 
the  jipwer  of  true  piety  in  a  very  young 
child  is  admirably  exhibited  in  a  series  of 
trials  which,  though  severe  and  unusual, 
are  not  beyond  the  limits  of  probability. — 
A  tfi.  Presbyterian. 

Elsie  is  environed  with  besetments  and 
trials,  but  is  singularly  faithful  through 
/hem  all,  and  gives  promise  by  her  sweet- 
ness of  character  to  be  the  means  of  saving 
others.  The  sequel  of  this  story  will  be 
eagerly  looked  for,  as  it  closes  at  a  very 
interesting  point  in  the  narrative.  It  is  a 
charming  book,  and  will  give  increased 
popularity  to  the  authoress. — Phila.  Home 
Journal. 


The  Clifford  Household. 

By  the  awthor  of  "  Independence 
True  and  False,"  etc.  i6mo, 
illustrated I  25 

A  tale  illustrating  the  power  of  the  reli- 
gion of  Christ  in  strengthening  a  gentle 
shrinking  girl  for  the  performance  of  diffi- 
cult duties  and  the  endurance  of  severe 
trials,  and  the  power  of  the  sams  religion 
in  crushing  and  subduing  a  proud,  imperi- 
ous nature  so  t'nat  it  bows  at  last  to  the 
rule  of  Christ.  The  story  is  well  told. — 
Presbyterian. 

The  story  is  well  told,  and  the  spirit 
xnd  lessons  of  the  narrative  are  pure  and 
evangelical. — A  m.  Presbyterian. 

\  lifelike  picture  of  home  scenes.  No 
fancy  sketch  ;  no  exaggeration  ;  no  perfecT; 
characters ;  no  angels  ;  but  men,  women, 
and  children,  as  we  find  them  in  everyday 
b!i&.— -Springfield  L'.ti**. 


The  Finland  Fami  y;  or 

Fancies  taken  from  Facls.  A 
Tale  of  the  Past  for  the  Present 
By  Mrs.  Susan  Peyton  Cormvell. 
i6mo  ,  3  illustrations.  .  $i  25 

This  excellent  story  has  be^n  so  long 
out  of  print  as  to  be  new  to  the  present 
generation  of  readers.  "  Its  aim  is  to  show 
the  folly  of  a  superstitious  belief  in  signs 
and  omens.  It  is  full  of  the  gentlest  and 
sweetest  sympathies,  and  at  the  same  time 
commends  the  cu'ture  of  the  firmest  and 
most  steadfast  principles." — Chn.  Intel- 
ligencer. 

Holidays  at   Roseiands  . 

with  some  After  Scenes  in  Elsie's 
Life.  A  Sequel  to  Elsie  Dins- 
more.  By  Martha  Farquharson. 
i6mo,  illustrated  .  .  .  $i  50 

Elsie  is  here  brought  through  various 
trials  and  a  severe  and  nearly  fatal  sick- 
ness to  full  enjoyment  of  her  father's,  affec- 
tion, and  the  happiness  of  seeing  him  a 
humble  follower  of  her  Divine  Master. 
The  story  is  even  more  intensely  interest- 
ing than  in  the  first^  part,  as  with  added 
years  Elsie's  character  becomes  more 
natural  and  mature.  No  reader  of  Elsie 
Dinsmore  should  fail  to  follow  her  story  to 
its  happy  completion  in  this  sequel. 

The  Brownings.   A  Tale 

of  the  Great  Rebellion.  By  J. 
G.  Fuller,  i-vol.  i6mo,  illus- 
trated   075 

A  deeply  interesting  story  of  the  trials 
and  sufferings  of  a  Union  family  in  the  late 
war.  The  scene  is  'aid  on  the  banks  of 
the  St.  Mary's,  which  separates  Geoigia 
from  Florida.  Impressive  lessons,  moraV 
and  religious,  as  well  as  patriotic,  are  con 
veyed  through  the  medium  of  the  story. 

Lucy  Lee,  or  All  Things 

for  Christ.  By  J.  G.  Fuller 
i6mo,  illustrated  .  .  .  I  oc 

"This,"  says  the  National  Baptist 
"is  one  of  the  few  that  we  would  like  t« 
have  in  every  Sunday  School  library.  I 
is  written  by  one  who  knows  the  value  01 
experimental  religion,  and  to  whom  th< 
service  of  God  is  a  fountain  of  unceasinj 
joy." 

The  two  above  volumes  were  formerly 
bound  in  one  and  called  "  The  Brow» 
injjs." 


Dodd  &  Mead's  Catalogue. 

MIMPRISS.— GOSPEL  TREASURY  AND  TREAi 
URY  HARMONY  OF  THE  FOUR  EVANGE 
LISTS:  having  the  Text  in  parallel  columns.  With  Scrip- 
ture Illustrations,  Praftical  Reflexions,  and  Addend? 
Geographical,  Biographical,  Topographical,  Historical,  and 
Critical,  illustrating  manners,  customs,  opinions,  and  local- 
ities of  the  Sacred  Narrative,  with  analytical  and  historical 
tables,  and  a  very  copious  index :  also  a  chart,  with  every 
event  numbered  and  localized.  ]5y  ROBERT  MIMPRISS. 
Crown  8vo.,  over  900  pp.  Cloth  extra,  red  edges,  .  $3  50 
Quarto  edition,  large  type,  cloth  extra,  ....  9  oo 

It  will  be  found  to  supply  an  amount  and  kind  of  information  not 
found  in  any  other  volume,  and  to  fill  an  unoccupied  place  in  the 
literature  of  Bible  Helps.  Its  value  to  Sunday-school  teachers  and 
private  students  of  the  Bible  especially,  is  inestimable. 

The  Harmony  is  according  to  Greswell,  and  in   the  words  of  the  a»thorized 


version. 


An  important  feature  is  the  arrangement  of  the  Four  Evangelists  in  parallel 
columns,  and  in  juxtaposition.  This  is  carried  out  with  great  minuteness,  giving 
a  comparison  of  verses  and  lines,  and  even  words  for  consultation  at  sight.  The 
arrangement  also  admits  of  the  Harmony  being  read. as  a  continuous  narrative. 

The  Notes  hare  been  carefully  selected  from  the  best  sources. 

The  Geographical  nonces  are  from  the  most  reliable  authorities. 

The  A  ddcnda  supply  a  great  variety  of  matter  for  consultation,  illustrating  th« 
text. 

The  Scripture  Illustrations  are  very  full,  and  are  calculated  to  lead  to  an  'Mtel- 
ligcnt  knowledge  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

"  It  is  not  easy  to  state  in  a  few  words  the  merits  of  this  extraordinary  book'.  To 
say  that  it  is  useful,  excellent,  valuable,  and  the  like,  is  tame,  and  far  below  its 
merits.  It  is  in  all  respefts  a  most  unusual  book,  and  the  labor  in  its  preparation 
mast  have  been  immense.  It  is  in  Its  own  department  without  a  parallel  in  the 
language,  and  stands  many  degrees  at  the  head  of  its  class." — Primitive  Church 
Magazine,  England. 

"  For  us  who  have  so  earnestly  approved  the  work,  and  urged  it  upon  the  at**n- 
lion  of  Sunday-school  teachers,  it  is  quite  unnecessary  to  add  another  word.  It 
ranks  among  the  very  first  companions  of  the  Bible  in  bible  study.  It  is  a  con- 
densed commentary  of  commentaries,  a  right-hand  helper  in  the  preparation  of  New- 
Testament  lessons." — S.  S.  Times. 

"  No  circulation  can  ever  repay  in  money  value  the  time  expended  on  it.  Should 
I  ev;r  be  permitted  to  go  over  the  same  ground  again,  I  expeifl  to  derive  gre»4. 
assistance  from  it." — Rev.  James  Hamilton,  D.D. 

"  The  Gospel  Treasury  prepared  by  Robert  Mimpriss  I  consider  one  of  the  most 
valuable  helps  to  a  Sunday-school  teacher  that  I  have  ever  seen." — Rev.  Stejttuit 
If.  Tyng,  D.D. 

"Anything  like  an  adequate  idea  of  the  immense  amount  of  information  upon 
the  New  Testament  incorporated  within  the  compass  of  this  handsome  volvme,  it 
is  difficult  to  convfty.  Within  its  portable  compass  we  find  matter  compressed 
i;  fficient  to  fill  ter  rdinary  demy  octavos." — Su'i  lay-School  Teacher's  Magagr'tu. 


T 


Dodd  &  Mead's  Catalogue. 
The  Mimpriss  Graded   Uniform  Lesson  Series. 

HE  LIFE  OF  CHRIST.— Harmonized  from  the  Four 
Evangelists.  A  Sunday-School  Lesson-Book,  in  THREE 
GRADES — Grade  First,  for  the  Younger  Classes  ;  Grade 
Second,  for  Children  ;  Grade  Third,  for  Youth. 
In  boards,  each  Grade,  .  .  £0.20  ;  $18.00  per  hundred. 
In  Paper,  "  "  .  .  $0.15;  $13.00  per  hundred. 

TEACHERS'   MANUAL— For  the  First,  Second,  and 
Third  Grades. 

Containing  Map,  Questions,   Explanations,  Geographical 
and  other  information,  and  an  Introduction  explaining  the 
System,  and  showing   How  TO   TEACH.      i8mo. 
In  cloth,  each  Grade,     ....     $0.60  ;  $6.50  per  dozen. 
In  Boards,"          "         ....     $o.4o ;  $4.25  per  dozen- 


Fourth  or  Bible  Class  Grade. 

STUDIES    ON    THE    GOSPEL    HARMONY.— Con- 
taining Suggestive  Questions,   Scripture   Illustrations, 
Practical  Lessons,  Exercises  in  Supplemental  Narrative, 
and    Christ    our    Example.     With    Chart.     Revised   and 
Cheaper  Edition.     i6mo,  board.    .     0,40    $4.25  per  dozen. 
To  Accompany  the  Fourth  Grade. 

THE  GOSPELS  IN  HARMONY.— Having  the  Text  of 
the  Four  Evangelists  in  parallel  columns,  with  Notes, 
References  and  Chart. 

-  Pocket  Edition,  small  type,  paper,  0.60  ;  cloth,     0.75 
—  i6mo          "          larger   " "         1.25 

This  volume  is  an  almost  indispensable  accompaniment  to  the  STUDIES  ON  THB 
HARMONY.  Both  editions  have  the  Life  of  Christ  entire,  and  furnish  the  text  for 
the  whole  100  lessons,  and  thus  accompany  the  second  as  well  as  the  first  volume 
of  the  Studies. 

THE   GOSPEL   TREASURY   (see  next  page)   is   the 
TEACHER'S  MANUAL  for  the  Fourth  Grade. 


years'  Course.     The  Lesson  Books  and  Manuals,  as  above,  contain  Fifty 
Lessons,  leaving  a  Second  Volume  to  complete  the  Course. 

N.B. — The  Second  Volume  will  be  published  in  April,  uniform  in  price  and 
style  with  the  -various  Grades  of  the  First  Volume. 


Dodd  &  Mead's  Catalogue. 
The  Mimpriss  Graded  Uniform  Lesson  Series 

Teachers'  Helps  accompanying  the  System. 

For  fuller  descriptions  see   Catalogue  pages  14  and  15. 

THE    GOSPEL    TREASURY    AND    TREASURY    HAR- 
MONY OF  THE  FOUR  EVANGELISTS.     With  Notes, 
Practical  Reflections,  Geographical  Notices,  Copious  Index,  Map, 
&c.,  &c.     Crown  8vo.,  cloth  extra,     ........     $3  50 

This  invaluable  Teacher's  Help  is  especially  useful  to  teachers  of  this  system, 
and  should  be  in  the  hand?  of  all  who  can  afford  to  own  a  copy.  It  is  divided  into 
one  hundred  sections,  corresponding  with  the  one  hundred  lessons,  and  supplies,  in 
one  compact  volume,  just  the  material  needed  in  preparing  the  lesson. 

npHE   PATH   OF  JESUS.     With  cloth  back,  folded  for  the 
J_     Pocket,      ................     $o  20 

-  For  the  Wall,  mounted  on  rollers,  size  4x5  feet,      .      7  oo 

This  Chart  is  the  same  as  that  in  the  Lesson-Books,  Manuals,  &c.,  but  on 
larger  scales.  The  pocket  size  is  large  enough  for  class  use.  The  wall  size  should 
be  owned  by  every  school  studying  the  system,  and  will  be  found  an  invaluable  aid 
to  tils  superintendent  or  pastor  in  addressing  the  school  upon  the  lesson. 

nnHE  STEPS  OF  JESUS.     With  Chart.     iSmo.,  cloth,  $o  75 
JL         "  "  Pocket  edition,  cloth,  flexible,     35 

This  volume  is  in  the  precise  words  of  the  authorized  version,  but  arranged  to 
read  as  a  continuous  narrative.  It  may  be  used  to  great  advantage  as  a  reading 
book  for  classes  studying  the  life  of  Christ,  and  is  especially  adapted  as  a  reward  01 
prespn1.  for  such 


PICTURES  OF  OUR  LORD'S  LIFE,    in 

V_T     nological  Order.     From  Original  Drawings  by  Wm.  Brough. 
Part  First.     50  Cards.     In  a  Packet      .......     o  35 

These  pictures  are  especially  designed  for  the  infant  and  younger  classes.  There 
is  a  card  for  each  lesson,  having,  in  addition  to  the  picture,  the  text  of  the  lesson 
printed  on  the  back,  with  brief  questions,  &c.  They  will  be  found  a  very  dosiral>h 
accompaniment  to  the  First  Grade  Lesson  Book. 


Dodd  &  Mead's  Catalogue. 

By  the  Author  of  "The  Schonberg-Cotta  Family." 

X  T  WATCHWORDS  FOR  THE  WARFARE  OF  LIFE. 

»  •      From  Dr.  MARTIN  LUTHER.  Translated  and  arranged 

by  the  Author   of  the    Schonberg-Cotta   Family.     i2mo. 

Elegantly  printed  on  tinted  paper.     Cloth.    Extra  bevelled 

boards, $i   75 

"An  appreciative  mind  has  explored  the  rich  storehouse  of 
Luther's  writing,  and  gathered  with  loving  hand  the  most  valuable 
gems,  and  has  so  arranged  them  that  each  cluster  reflects  some 
phase  or  event  of  his  actual  life."  These  selections  are  most  sug- 
gestively arranged  under  appropriate  headings.  The  Author  calls 
it  "  a  most  appropriate  pendant  to  the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family." 

"We  have  learned  mere  cf  Luther's  personal  history  from  the  ana  in  this 
volume  than  from  the  most  labored  biography." — rhila.  Press. 

"  We  cannot  help  thinking  that  this  is  the  most  valuable  of  the  works  of  the 
Author,  as  it  is  certainly  as  interesting  as  any.  It  gives  us  a  better  idea  than 
volumes  or  history  can  of  Jie  strength,  and  vigor,  and  originality  of  Luther's 
mind." — Young  Men's  Qiu-rterly. 

'  They  show  us  the  heart  of  the  great  Christian  warrior  in  the  midst  of  his 
warfare.  Those  relating  to  the  death  of  his  little  daughter,  Magdalena,  are  won- 
derfully beautiful  and  touching." — S.  X  Tituss. 

•T^HE    SONG   WITHOUT  WORDS.      Leaves   from   a 
J-    very  old  book,  dedicated  to  Children.     By  the  author  of 
the  Schonberg-Cotta  Family.     Beautifully  illustrated,  and 
exquisitely  printed  and  bound.    Square  i6mo.    .     .    £o  75 
'•A  truly  wonderful  little  allegory,  in  which  a  solitary  child  by  the 
«ea  hears  the  song  without  words  of  the  natural  objects  around  him, 
which  are  described  in  the  most  charming  manner,  and  finally  dis- 
covers the  words  through  the  aid  of  his  sister,  wrecked  and  thrown 
ishore  near  his  lonely  sea-side  home." 

"This  little  story  for  children  reads  like  a  tender  and  exquisite  poem.  It  is  at 
once  a  fairy  tale,  a  lesson  of  pure  religion,  and  a  charming  sea-idyl  in  prose." — In- 
dependent. 

"  This  is  a  sweet  litile  allegory,  poetical  in  its  prose,  and  heavenly  in  its  teachings." 
—Indi.innfolis  State  Journal. 

"  It  is  b:autifully  printed  and  illustrated,  and  the  story,  which  is  written  in  thni 
sample  yet  elegant  style  which  in  former  works  has  gained  the  author  so  many  »d 
mirers,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  child  stories  we  have  ever  read." — Daily  It-  t" 
tonti*- 


JUVENIIE  AND  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  BOOKS. 


The  Cottage  Library.     6  vols.  1 8mo,  in  sets  $5  25 

Separately  as  follows  : 

Henry  Wiilard  ;   or,  The 


Value  of  Right  Principles.  By 
C.  M.  Trowbridge.  Illustra- 
ted . $o  85 

A  choice  book  for  boys,  illustrating  very 
happily  the  untold  forms  in  which  a  youth 
may  be  assailed  by  temptation,  and  the 
safety  of  an  open,  frank,  manly  course  of 
conduct  in  all  circumstances.  The  con- 
cluding chapter  enforces  impressively  the 
great  lesson,  that  the  influence  of  the  most 
trifling  aft  may  extend  onward  and  onward 
through  time.  Parents  who  place  this  vol- 
ume in  the  hands  of  their  children  will  find 
the  cost-money  _well  invested. — A  dvocate 
and  Guardian. 

Uncle  Barnaby  ;   or,  Re- 

colleclions  of  his  Character  and 
Opinions o  85 

The  religion  of  the  book  is  good,  the 
morality  excellent,  and  the  mode  of  exhib- 
iting their  important  lessons  can  hardly  be 
surpassed  in  anything  calculated  to  make 
them  attractive  to  the  young,  or  successful 
in  correcting  anything  bad  in  their  habits 
or  morals. 

Shadows  and  Sunshine; 

as  illustrated  in  the  History  of 
Notable  Characters.  By  Rev. 
Erskin  Neal o  85 


Sunday     Sketches     for 

Children.  By  a  Father.  Illus- 
trated   $o  85 

On  such  subjedts  as  the  "  H  dden  Man- 
na and  the  White  Stone  ;"  "  The  Earth 
without  a  Sea  ;"  "  The  Place  foi  a  Candle  ;" 
"Enoch;"  "The  Rich  Young  Ruler," 
etc. 

These  are  admirable  sketches,  natural- 
ly and  strikingly  drawn,  and  "'ill  be  read 
by  the  children  with  pleasure  and  profit 
— Christian  Chronicle. 

Glenarvon;   or,  Holidays 

at  the  Cottage.  A  beautiful 
Scotch  story.  Illustrated  .  o  85 

This  is  a  delightful  book.  Its  stories, 
drawn  from  Scottish  life,  are  interspersed 
with  interesting  anecdotes  and  episodes, 
illustrating  historical  and  scientific  truths. 
It  conveys  the  best  moral  and  religions 
lessons  adapted  to  the  youthful  mind,  and 
told  in  such  a  manner  as  to  engage  the  at- 
tention.— Ant.  and  For.  Ch.  Union. 

The  Old  Oak  Chest  and 

its  Treasures.  By  Aunt  Eliza- 
beth. A  most  attractive  volume 
of  several  hundred  anecdotes 
an.l  stories O  85 


A  book  in  which  various  characters  of  A  collection  of  m'ore  than  two  hundred 
distinction  are  made  to  teach,  and  from  striking  incidents  and  anecdotes,  illustra- 
whose  checkered  experience  much  which  I  live  of  moral  and  religious  truths.  It  is  an 
is  valuable  may  be  derived.  We  heartily  '  excellent  book  for  the  family,  and  especial 
tcmmend  it. — Religio-ts  Heiald.  '  ly  the  young.  —  Christian  Observer. 


The  Wrongs  of  Women. 

By  Charlotte  Elizabeth.  A  new 
edition.  Four  parts  in  one,  with 
portrait.  iSmo,  cl.  ext.  o  90 

Embracing— i.  Milliners  and  Dress- 
makers. 2.  The  Forsaken  Home.  3. 
The  Little  J'in  Headers.  4.  The  Lace 
Runners.  An  array  of  startling  facts  re- 
garding the  working  classes  and  their 
religious  and  social  wrongs  is  presented  in 
the  author's  most  interesting  style. 


Frank    Forest;   or,   The 

Life  of  an  Orphan  Boy.  By 
David  M.  Stone.  Illustrated, 
iSmo o  05 


It  inculcates  the  most  impressive  les- 
sons of  virtue  and  religion,  ?ud  the  intense 
interest  of  the  story  will  rivet  the  attention 
of  the  children;  thus  securing  a  happy 
influence  on  their  hearts  —j>i,rnal  of 
Commerce 


IJ  I  B  L  E    HELPS 


SUNDA  Y-SCHOOL    TEXT-BOOKS 

PUBLISHED   BY 

DODD     &     MEAD 


(Successors  to  M.  W.  Bodd), 

762  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK. 


C 


RUBEN'S     COMPLETE     CONCORDANCE    TO     THE 
HOLY   SCRIPTURES;    OR,  A  DICTIONARY  AND  A LI>HA- 
UETICAL  INDEX  TO  THE  BIBLE.    By  ALEXANDER  CRUDEN,  M.A. 


IV. — A  Concordance  to  the  Propei 
Names  of  the  Bible,  and  their  meaning 
in  the  original. 

V. — A  Concordance  to  the  Books  called 
the  Apocrypha. 

To  which  is  appended  an  original  life 
of  the  Author,  illustrated  with  an  accurate 
Portrait  from  a  Steel  Engraving. 


By  which,  T. — Any  verse  in  the  Bible 
may  be  readily  found  by  looking  for  any 
material  word  in  the  verse.  To  which  is 
added— 

1 1. — The  significations  of  the  principal 
words,  by  which  their  true  meanings  in 
Scriptures  are  shown. 

III. — An  account  of  Jewish  customs 
and  ceremonies  illustrative  of  many  por- 
tions of  the  Sacred  Record. 

One  vol.  royal  8vo.,  cloth  extra,  bevelled  boards,     .     .     .     $4  oo 
Sheep,  $5  oo  ;    Half  morocco,       6  50 

This  is  the  genuine  and  entire  edition  of  Cruden's  great  work — 
the  only  one  embracing  those  features  which  Cruden  himself  and  the 
Public,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years,  have  regarded  as  essential  to 
its  completeness  and  inestimable  value.  In  its  complete  form  it  has 
ever  been  regarded  as  immeasurably  superior  to  any  other  work  of 
the  kind. 

"  Cruden's  Concordance,  in  its  unabridged  ar.d  complete  state,  is  invaluable  to 
the  biblical  student,  and  the  abridgments  which  have  been  made  of  it  furnish  no 
idea  of  the  thoroughness  and  fulness  of  the  original  and  complete  work." — Rci'. 
Thomas  DC  Witt,  D.D. 

"  It  is  a  low  view  of  such  a  book  to  consider  it  merely  as  an  expedient  for  finding 
a  ccttain  verse.  It  is  in  reality  a  Bible  Lexicon.  As  managed  by  Cruden,  it  is 
ilso  an  explanatory  dictionary,  and  his  definitions  are,  in  every  instance  rem<;m- 
beied  by  me,  sound  and  evangelical." — Rev.  James  IV.  Alexander,  D.D. 

"  The  very  interesting  and  useful  analysis  of  the  senses,  in  which  the  more  imjx>i<- 
tant  words  of  Scripture  are  used,  gives  great  value  to  the  work." — Rev.  M.  1C. 
Jacobus,  D.D. 

"  Cruden's  Concordance,  in  its  original  state,  I  consider  above  all  price  to  the 
student  of  the  Scriptures." — Rev.  frauds  ll-'aylaiid,  LL.D.,  President  oj 
Br.-mm  University. 

"  We  never  recommend  anyone  to  be  satisfied  until  he  is  possessed  of  the  full  and 
complete  work  of  Cruden.  Let  it  be  your  very  next  investment  in  Bible  Helps. 
It  will  pay  you  as  you  go  along.  How  a  teacher  can  get  through  his  lessons  without 
it,  unless  he  is  gifted  with  the  marvellous  memory  of  a  Calvin  or  a  Nathaniel  West, 
we  cannot  see." — S.  ±.  Times. 

"  We  have  ^ften  been  surprised  to  find  intelligent  Christians  who  .r-e  daily 
students  o'  the  l)u'i:>e  Record,  but  who  had  never  had  this  volume.  II  om.lit  to  b« 
in  every  houscho'd,  where  every  Sabbath-school  teacher  and  scholar  and  evrrv  tea  del 
ccult!  ii;ivc  rirccss  HI  it."—  .VcTJ.  }'<»/.  Obsi-r. '.  ••>-. 


Dodd  &•  Mead's  Catalogue. 

SIMMONS'    SCRIPTURE    MANUAL.      Alphabetically  and 

V-'   Systematically  arranged.     Designed  to  facilitate  the  finding  of 

Proof  Texts.    By  CHARLES  SIMMONS.     i2mo $i  75 

The  texts  are  printed  in  full,  thus  saving  the  inconvenience  of 
constant  reference.  The  subjects  are  alphabetically  arranged  with 
fu,l  cross  references,  and  an  ample  index  is  provided. 

"  The  work  contains  not  merely  the  proof  texts  on  the  subject  to  which  it  refers, 
but,  what  appears  to  my  own  mind  one  of  its  excellences,  the  texts  that  illustrate 
these  subjects.  Though  the  arrangement  of  the  subjects  is  alphabetical,  in  the  illus- 
tration of  the  subjects  themselves,  the  author  has  observed  that  connection  between 
one  truth  and  another  which  gives  to  each  its  proper  place." — Dr.  Spring's  Intro- 
duction. 

"  It  is  incomparably  superior  to  anything  of  the  kind  with  which  I  am  acquainted, 
and  its  extensive  circulation  and  use  cannot  but  have  a  happy  influence.  1  have  no 
doubt  that  the  work  will  soon  supersede  every  other  of  the  kind,  as  I  am  clearly  of 
the  opinion  that  it  should." — A'ez>.  Albert  Barnes. 

"  I  consider  your  text-book  to  be  remarkably  suited  to  the  object  in  view,  and 
I'ks'.y  to  be  the  Book  which  will  satisfy  not  only  common  people,  but  ministers  and 
all  men  of  logical  mind  and  cultivated  taste.  It  is  my  opinion  that  it  will  take  the 
place  of  all  other  works  of  the  kind,  and  that  nothing  else  will  be  called  for  or 
attempted  for  a  great  while  to  come." — Rev.  Leonard  Woods,  D.D. 

"As  a  help  in  the  selection  of  proof  texts  on  almost  any  subject  in  the  Bible,  I 
know  of  nothing  of  equal  value."' — Rev.  Enoch  Pond,  D.D. 

"A  standard  work  which,  like  Gulden's  Concordance,  is  not  likely  to  be  super- 
seded by  anythin?  better  We  cannot  attempt  to  set  forth  all  the  valuable  features 
of  this  m  inual.  We  or.Iy  urge  all  Sunday-school  teachers  and  private  Christians 
to  get  and  use  it." — S.  S.  Times. 

''  It  is  far  more  copious  and  reliable  than  any  work  of  the  kind.  A  better  help  in 
the  study  of  the  Bible  is  not  accessible." — Congregationalist. 

"  The  work  is  the  best  of  the  kind  within  our  knowledge." — New  Englandcr. 

TV"  ING'S  QUESTIONS  ON  THE  GOSPELS  IN  HAR- 
-»•  »-  MONY,  chronologically  arranged  in  189  separate  lessons  for 

Sunday  Schools  and  Bible  Classes.      By  WALTER  KING,  A.M. 

iSmo., - $o  40 

The  Same,  in  3  vols.,  each, 20 

This  excellent  question  book  was  rewritten  several  times,  and  each 
successive  revision  tested  by  aftual  use  in  several  of  the  best  Sun- 
day Schools  in  the  country  for  the  purpose  of  discovering  any  defecls 
or  incorporating  any  improvements  suggested  by  its  practical  use. 
Though  mainly  designed  for  S.  S.  Bible  classes,  it  has  been  unreduced 
with  great  advantage  in  Day  schools  and  Families.  The  arrange- 
ment is  chronological,  the  harmony  being  upon  the  basis  of  the  best 
expositors.  Many  valuable  notes  are  given  in  the  margin.  The 
appendix  contains  a  combined  view  of  thirty  of  the  most  interesting 
scenes.  Sectarian  alKisions  arc  avoided,  suiting  it  to  all  de  omina- 
tions. 


Dodd  &  Mead's  Catalogue. 

MIMPRISS.— A   HARMONY   OF    THE   FOUR 
EVANGELISTS,   in   the    words   of  the   Authorized 
Version,  according  to  Gresvvell's  "  Harmonia  Evangelica,'1 
arranged  in  parallel  columns  ;    having  marginal  references 
and  occasional  notes,  with  all  the  events  numbered  in  chron- 
ological  succession    and   geographically   localized    in    the 
ccompanying   chart.      Compiled    by  ROBERT   MIMPRISS. 

One  vol.  i6:r.o.,  cloth, si   25 

i8mo.  edition,  cloth, $o  75  5  paper,  o  60 

The  four  accounts  of  the  Life  of  Christ  are  here  plnced  side  by  side,  and  so 
arranged  that  an  intelligent  and  exact  comparison  may  be  made  at  a  glance.  They 
ate  also  arranged  to  be  read  as  a  continuous  narrative. 

This  is  the  Bible-Class  Text- Book  for  Sunday  Schools  using  Mini- 
1  Graduated  Lessons  on  the  Life  of  Christ. 

-  STUDIES  ON  THE  GOSPEL  HAR- 
MONY, or  Class  Papers  for  Home  and  Bible-Class  Study. 
Containing  Suggestive  Questions,  Scripture  Illustrations, 
Practical  Lessons,  Exercises  in   Supplemental    Narrative. 
and  Christ  our  Example.     i6mo.,  in  two  vols.,  each,  $o  40 

These  studies,  with  the  Harmony  above,  are  the  Text-Books  for  the  Bible  Clav 
in  Sunday  Schools  studying  MIMPRISS'  Graduated  Lessons  on  the  Life  of  Christ. 
They  are  also  a  valuable  aid  to  private  study  of  the  Gospels. 

-THE  STEPS  OF  JESUS.  A  Narra- 
tive Harmony  of  the  Four  Evangelists,  in  the  words  of  the 
Authorized  Version.  With  a  Chart  of  the  Life  and  Ministry 
of  our  Lord.  By  ROBERT  MIMPRISS.  i8mo.,  cloth,  $o  75 
Pocket  edition,  cloth,  o  35 

This  volume  is  in  the  words  of  the  authorized  version,  without  addition,  omis- 
sion, or  alteration,  and  is  a  completely  harmonized  account  of  our  Lord's  Life  and 
Ministry  in  a  continuous  narrative.  It  is  valuable  lor  private  reading,  well  suited  for 
a  Sunday-School  reward,  and  may  be  used  to  great  advantage  as  a  reading  look  fol 
c'isses  engaged  in  study  of  the  Gospel  Harmony. 

-  THE  PATH  OF   JESUS.       An  Out- 
line  Chart   of  the    Holv   Land,    tracing  the   Journeys   of 
Christ,  and  localizing  all  the  events  in  his  Life  and  Minis- 
try.     With  cloth  ba.:k,  folded £o  20 

The  same,  for  the  wall,  mounted  on  rollers,  size,  5^  feet 
by  4  feet $7  °o 


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